


Shiny Objects

by NerdyKat



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Hydra (Marvel), Hydra Grant Ward, Implied/Referenced Torture, Kidnapping, Multi, Past Child Abuse, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Protective Melinda May, Protective Sharon Carter, Protective Steve Rogers, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-18
Updated: 2017-05-19
Packaged: 2018-10-06 22:34:43
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 33,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10346016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NerdyKat/pseuds/NerdyKat
Summary: Skye was born with two marks, though in 25 years she'd never met either of them. But at the Hub, after sleeping with Miles, all of that changes in a single instant.Canon divergence from 1x07





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And I'm back!
> 
> I thank you guys for bearing with me this last month and a half. Since the last of To Which Fate Binds You was posted, I moved 600 miles and started a new job. It's taken me a while to regain traction in writing, but I've had this baby in the wings for a while. Now I have a bit of a buffer, you should start seeing weekly postings on this one.
> 
> Enjoy!

“I don’t think it likes me here,” Skye said, staring at the Hub’s door panel.

“It tends not to like shiny objects,” came a voice. Skye’s eyes went wide as she recognized her first set of soulwords. She turned and her brain nearly shorted at the at the gorgeous, curvaceous Amazonian blonde who was behind her. “I’m Sharon, by the way.” Skye was too stunned to answer. She could only stare at her soulmate. “What’d you do?”

“I slept with the target,” she said before registering that  _ her  _ first words had been about Miles. The woman smiled and Skye reddened. “I mean- Oh god… I’m sorry… I’m an idiot. I’m Skye.” 

Sharon’s smile widened. “Relax. I’ve had those words on my skin since 1988. This is better circumstances than it could have been.”

Skye nodded for a moment, then froze. “Wait, eighty- _ eight _ ?”

“Yeah,” Sharon said slowly, then cracked a smile awkwardly. “What, do you not know when you were born?” Maybe it was the fact that Skye was still secured to the wall. Maybe it was the fact that Skye was months into working in SHIELD and still knew nothing about her parents or who had abandoned her to the foster system or if anyone would ever want her, including now her soulmates, but her eyes started welling up at the question. Skye looked away very quickly, but the woman caught it. Rushed forward, embracing her while simultaneously putting her badge up to the reader to release Skye’s wrist. 

In what felt like two seconds, Skye was ushered into a private room - just before tears started falling. Sharon was clearly at a loss of what to do, so she just held onto Skye while she sobbed. Eventually, Skye’s sobs died down. “You were born July 2nd, 1988,” Sharon said quietly. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” she said, trying to stop herself from crying. Physical contact with one of her soulmates seemed to be amplifying her emotions and the tears started falling faster again.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Sharon asked, though she seemed to know the answer already. 

Skye looked down at her bracelet. “I slept with the target,” she said distantly. Her eyes flew open “Oh god, I slept with him when you were right here waiting for me. I’m sorry… I’m so sorry...”

“It’s okay. Take a breath,” Sharon said. “Please Skye? I promise there’s nothing to be sorry about.” Skye nodded and took few breaths and calmed down. “I assume that the target was someone you knew? And you were emotionally invested?”

“Miles…” Skye said, trailing off, wondering how much she could tell Sharon. She had told Coulson a good deal of it, but hadn’t wanted the looks of pity. Skye closed her eyes and took another breath. If there was anyone who would accept it without pitying her, it would be her soulmates.

As if she were reading her mind, Sharon lightly touched her shoulder. “Hey, whatever it is, I’ll still love you. You’re still my soulmate.”

Skye nodded and opened her eyes, but still wouldn’t look at Sharon. “When Miles found me… I’d been living on the street for six months. I was sixteen and… I’d been tossed away by every foster family I was ever placed with. Even the nuns at the orphanage didn’t want me. Sometimes the homes weren’t… they… sometimes the foster parents were the types that you hear in the horror stories about the foster system. Other times foster parents were good, but would return me for stupid reasons. According to some of the nuns, they told me that because I had multiple soulmarks… I wasn’t worthy of love or a family. Most of them told me my parents had dumped me on their doorstep because they hadn’t wanted me either.” Skye kept going, maintaining her momentum. “I was… angry. At my parents. At the nuns. At everyone. For a long time. But somehow I used the anger to fuel my conviction to work hard to get into college… to get away. I was accepted to MIT but… something bad happened and I ended up on the street. Miles took me in. He was the first person… he didn’t care that I had multiple marks. He got me motivated to learn how to hack so I could find my parents. I became very good. One of the best. But all I could find was there was a redacted SHIELD document linked to the circumstances behind my birth.”

“So you hacked SHIELD and got caught,” Sharon said in realization.

“On purpose,” Skye admitted, nodding. “I knew I couldn’t find the document from the outside, so I had to get inside. I just need to know…” she paused, still not looking at Sharon. “I need to know if it was true. If they left me because of my marks. Miles… I thought I owed him. It turns out he’s not who I thought he was.”

“Hey,” Sharon said softly, lifting Skye’s chin with her hand. Sharon was crying quietly. “No matter what the truth is… if they don’t love you, it’s their loss. It was all their losses if they thought that. Anyone would be lucky to have you in their lives. And you’ve got a big family now that you’ve found me,” Sharon said softly after Skye finished. Sharon’s automatic acceptance of her produced a fresh wave of tears. “I should tell you. My last name’s Carter.”

Skye stopped, her brain making the connections. “Wait… as in…” Skye said.

Sharon nodded. “She’s my great-aunt. I don’t really broadcast it here though. I’m Sharon to anyone who knows me, and I’m working undercover more often than not. But I grew up with the other descendants of the Howling Commandos being my family so my family’s pretty big. They’re your family too now. So… you have another mark?”

“Yeah,” Skye said, pulling up a pants leg to reveal cursive along her inner calf.

Sharon revealed matching cursive on her stomach. “Looks like we have the same third out there somewhere.”

“Makes things easier,” Skye agreed, nodding.

“And no offense, but I wouldn’t be too keen on sharing someone as precious as you with someone I wasn’t mated to as well…” Sharon noted.

“I’m not worth that… I mean, I’m not even a SHIELD Agent,” Skye said quietly. “I….”

“What you are is my soulmate,” Sharon said, cutting Skye off gently. “And it’s your heart that matters to me, not where you work or what you do.”

They ended up both curled around each other on the floor, optimizing skin contact and exchanging stories of their childhoods, when May burst in looking very annoyed. She went from annoyed to shocked almost instantly when she spotted the pair of them. “Skye…?” May said slowly. “What’s going on?”

“It’s alright, Agent May,” Sharon said, tucking a strand of hair behind Skye’s ear as Skye’s face went bright red. “We’re soulmates.”

May’s eyebrows actually raised. “We should keep this quiet,” she said after a long silence. “I’m watching Coulson the same way you were assigned to watch You-Know-Who.”

“Ah,” Sharon said. “Fury told you?”

“He read me in on everything that he knows on why he has agents watching various key players,” May said. “Barton’s on Stark, Morse is on… something I can’t talk about here. But Skye, we need to go. Coulson’s going to debrief everyone on what we’re cleared to tell you.”

Skye was hesitant to extract herself from Sharon. Maybe it was the bond in the first stages of forming, but it was the first time that she had felt fully accepted by anyone. Sharon seemed equally hesitant. “I actually have to go too. Transport back to the Triskellion leaves in half an hour. I need to report in.”

Skye fumbled for her phone then cursed when the phone errored out. May looked down at the phone. “I’ll talk to Coulson about lifting your restrictions so you can talk to Sharon,” the older agent promised. Sharon looked at her in surprise. “I won’t tell him why.”

“Thanks,” Skye said quietly, looking wistfully at her soulmate.

“Can you step outside for a moment while I talk to May about something?” Sharon asked.

Skye gave Sharon a longing look that broke Sharon’s heart, then nodded and left the room.

“Please take care of her,” Sharon said to May. “I want… I want the chance to give her the life she was denied. She deserves for someone to love her.” May raised her eyebrows in surprise. “She’s my soulmate, May. Of course I love her.”

“No,” May said quietly. “I merely… Coulson and I have been looking for her parents and she’s been pestering us about it.”

“You never did do well with pestering,” Sharon said compassionately. 

May nodded. “I suppose I never wanted to think about the fact she never had something we all take for granted.”

“That’s why I need you to take care of her while I’m looking after Rogers. I don’t know who our third is and she doesn’t either. But if anything goes down with whatever it is that may or may not be going on… I want someone who’s going to be there for Skye.”

“I’ll keep an eye on her,” May promised.

A lot of Skye’s decision-making started to make a lot more sense to May as she watched her over the next few days. When Ward and Fitz were been sent off without an extraction plan, May could suddenly see the utter panic in Skye’s eyes clearly. Coulson was so caught up by the fact that Skye once again had broken the rules, so focused on the indiscretion, that he had missed the truth. Now that she was aware, though, May had seen and been amazed by it. They’d only known Skye a few short months and even though she still didn’t trust them completely, it seemed that Skye would break every rule in existence to keep them safe. Not many agents were so loyal. May couldn’t help but wonder what would have happened if they had gotten to Skye sooner.

What really worried May were her observations as the missions carried on after Fitz’s and Ward’s safe return. When Ward yelled and struck her after being influenced by the Berserker staff, May caught the look in Skye’s eyes. It wasn’t the initial hurt or shock that worried May, but the resigned look on Skye’s face after the hurt and shock faded. It was the way Skye slightly braced herself for another hit - verbal or physical. She hadn’t ever seen anything like it. There was  _ expectation _ in Skye’s eyes. The expectation that the hits would just keep coming.

Once the Asgardian revealed what the Berserker staff actually did, May spotted Skye giving images of the staff sidelong, fearful glances. How young had Skye been the first time she felt hate? How many families had abused the girl that she had stopped fighting back? It was no wonder that the girl seemed to love and accept everyone, but trust no one. It was clear to May that Skye had never had anyone to trust before that hadn't wound up betraying her. 

Suddenly, Skye’s actions with Miles became so much clearer. She had trusted him. Put her faith in him. And they had not only punished her for it, but most of the team had had a hard time forgiving her. Skye had been wrong and put her trust in the wrong person and May acknowledged that the punishment fit the crime, but they shouldn’t have been so harsh with her. On some level, it reminded her of the little girl in Bahrain. Skye just needed a reason to put faith in another person. She needed to be given a reason to trust that May could help take away Skye’s pain. If she couldn’t save that little girl, she had to atone for it by proving to Skye that she could trust again.

Using SHIELD resources, May checked on a few things regarding Skye’s past and only found a few vague references to hospital records of a few young girls in the foster system that could have been Skye, but no full records. Skye was hiding from someone or something. May had spent enough years with Andrew to know that for certain. Who had hurt her and how badly became extremely important for May to find out, even though she knew it would change nothing. She had tracked down a snippet of information regarding several possible orphanages around New York Skye could have stayed at. A Level 2 agent was going to each one, but it would take time to track down the paper copies of any records that might exist. 

Even with just a few short weeks of May realizing that Skye had never been loved, she felt oddly protective of the young hacker. After the calamitous mission regarding Hannah and the ghost of the man who loved her, May felt the need to talk to her about why she had shot Hannah. During the mission, she had heard FitzSimmons and Ward talking to Skye about how May had gained her notoriety. 

“With me,” May demanded Skye that night after dinner.

May led her to the cockpit and shut the door. “Look,” Skye said in a panic. “If this is about -”

“I’m sorry,” May interrupted, wanting to skip over Skye’s habit of tripping over her own words.

“I- what?” Skye asked, clearly perplexed.

“I know you think I made the wrong decision using the ICER on Hannah today, and I’m sorry that I didn’t have time to explain. I can now, if you can promise to keep this between us?”

Skye stared at her wide-eyed for a moment, then nodded.

“I know some of the others have told you about the legend surrounding Bahrain, but the truth is… no one knows the truth. It was a situation that escalated quickly out of everyone’s control and a child ended up dying.” Skye gasped. May waited for the look of judgement or pity or disgust, but none came. Skye certainly looked sad, but May knew any human would. “I didn’t act fast enough then. I waited until I was out of options. I didn’t want this to be that kind of situation.”

Skye very slowly sat down in the co-pilot’s seat, her eyes not leaving May’s. “I’m sorry,” Skye said eventually. “I didn’t… I mean… you’re a good agent, I should have trusted you. It’s been a long time since I was in a situation where I wasn’t the best in the room. I guess I’m not used to not knowing everything there is to know.” She shrugged. “It was an ICER. Non-lethal force. But thanks for sharing that with me.” She started to get up.

“You can stay if you like,” May said, surprising herself by the offer.

Skye paused at the door. “Yeah?” she asked, surprised as well.

“Ever want to learn how to fly a plane?” May asked her.

\---------

Slowly, May started to see things from Skye’s perspective. She understood, knowing Skye’s background, why the young trainee so firmly believed that actions had consequences, no matter who you were. Even if you were SHIELD. The life in foster care, the eight years that was unaccounted for from the ages of sixteen to twenty-four that May hoped hadn’t all been spent homeless in a van because, no matter what she said, Skye had nowhere else to go. Or the possible years Skye did things so that she’d have  _ somewhere _ to go. To say  _ nothing _ of why Skye felt the need to leave the system at sixteen at all.

The New York agent who had been tasked with tracking down Skye’s file succeeded in locating it and finally managed to get it hand-delivered to May. She read it while they refueled or maintenance was getting done or sometimes when she should have been sleeping. Now that she had it, she wondered what she should do with it or if she should tell anyone. Surely Fury would want to know who was on the plane. While the file provided a lot of answers, it also gave her a lot of questions. For some reason, maybe more out of habit than anything, May called Andrew first.

He was a little confused, but he agreed to meet her for an afternoon while Coulson was trying to reach Fury and the rest of the team were playing video games.

“Melinda?” Andrew said in greeting when she made it to the Bistro he suggested.

“Andrew,” May said.

“What’s… I mean, you were vague in your email. Something about an agent’s old foster care file?”

“She’s not an agent yet,” May said, sitting down across from Andrew. “She’s consulting for one of our teams. We picked her up after she got caught hacking SHIELD.” Andrew raised an eyebrow. “The rehabilitation is… in progress.”

“I bet,” Andrew said.

“She was placed into the system by SHIELD as a baby,” May continued. “I only recently managed to obtain a copy of her files.”

“How bad?” Andrew asked. He wasn’t a child psychologist, but he’d had enough experience with former foster kids to have a general idea of what to expect.

“Over twenty placements, a dozen hospital visits, and then she ran away when she was sixteen and I suspect lived in a van or on the street for the next eight years until we found her,” May said.

Andrew sighed. “She has issues with trust? Authority?”

“That’s the thing,” May said as impartially as possible. “From what I’ve seen, it has less to do with distrusting people and more to do with her distrusting the system. She wants to trust us. I just don’t think she knows how. But there’s evidence that… she’s been given enough reasons to expect a negative outcome.” May slid Skye’s file across the table. She hated how thick it was.

“You’re going to have to teach her, Melinda,” Andrew said. He flipped to the section on psychological evaluations and scanned it for a few moments. “From the looks of things, she gave up on The System a long time ago. I’ve seen it before in kids without a stable home; they don’t believe they’ll ever be accepted anywhere. That the next mistake will send them away. If you think SHIELD is the best place for her… you’re going to have to convince her that she has a place there, long-term. That a mistake isn’t going to change how SHIELD feels about her.”

“Or make her a place?” May asked thoughtfully.

“If you can, that might be the best thing for her.”

“So if she were on a mobile command...?” May said.

Andrew shook his head, “It wouldn’t be a good idea long-term. She needs home base. A bed that is hers and will always be hers. The file refers to two soulmarks. Is there any hint to who they are?”

“She found one of them. They haven’t found the other; though her mark refers to being alone, it’s pretty generic.”

“And she’s not with them now?” 

“Her soulmate is undercover,” May said softly. “Skye’s presence could possibly… compromise the situation.”

“But they… they want her?” Andrew asked carefully.

“More than anything,” May said nodding.

Andrew nodded. “Once the soulmate’s mission is over, I recommend transferring Skye to a position where she can stay with them full-time. If she wishes to remain within SHIELD, she should be free to have that option.“

“The agent who recruited her won’t like it,” May noted. Coulson would have a cow if he knew what she was planning, but it was going to be the best thing for Skye. Once whoever was working against SHIELD was captured or killed, Skye deserved to go home.

May knew then that the best way way to help Skye was to teach her how to defend herself. To give her a roots. A true mentor. That wasn’t going to be Ward. It couldn’t be. He wasn’t grounded himself. May knew that she’d have to bring up the subject of switching Skye’s assigned SO to Coulson soon. It hadn’t been a priority though. It  _ should  _ have been, but it wasn’t. Time sped by and it fell lower and lower on May’s to do list as watching Coulson’s and Skye’s backs became more and more complicated. May knew Skye was staying up and talking to Sharon almost every night and May was getting involved with Ward, though it was more for the young man’s benefit than her own.

At Christmas, the team had gotten a full week off, as most mobile units did since they didn’t get weekends or sick leave. FitzSimmons were celebrating Christmas back in the UK, though whether they were celebrating together or apart they were rather vague about. Ward was going to some tropical island or another that May couldn’t care less about and Coulson was going to Wisconsin. May saw the micro-expressions of disappointment and fear on their young charge’s face as Coulson explained that they had to keep Skye at the Hub since she still was on probation. Her bracelet locked Skye down to a limited few floors at the Hub because Victoria Hand was concerned about “security breaches”. Eager to use work as an excuse for not going to either of her parents for the holidays, May volunteered to stay with Skye.

Waking Skye up at 0500 that first morning of vacation had been interesting. “May?” Skye asked bleary-eyed when she opened her door. “What’s wrong?”

“Come on,” May said. “Time for training.”

“Ward’s gone, May,” Skye said, leaving her door open while she stumbled back to bed. May quirked an eyebrow as she followed Skye in. “I don’t have to train for the seven days and I plan to enjoy them.”

“So you expect that I’m going to let you just laze around and do nothing all day?” May asked, challengingly.

“I was hoping,” Skye said, covering her head with her pillow.

“Are you serious about wanting to become an agent?” May asked, more curious than accusatory.

“Right now I’m serious about  _ sleeping _ ,” Skye grumbled.

“What’d you do?” May asked. “Stay up all night?” Skye gave her a look. “You  _ did _ ? Why?”

Skye looked a little downcast and shrugged her shoulders. “No reason. I… I just haven’t seen her in a while,” she admitted. May knew exactly who Skye was talking about. “And since she met… I just... “ May remembered what Sharon had said about Skye never having had anyone to love her. She wondered if they shouldn’t have pulled Skye off the Bus to keep her closer to Sharon, but May knew the Bus was probably the safest place for Skye given how little they knew about whoever was infiltrating SHIELD. “It’s stupid,” Skye said blushing. “I’ve spent every other year of my life alone on Christmas. I don’t know why…” May gave her a searching look and Skye’s face went crimson. “I couldn’t sleep,” she finally admitted. 

She started to put on her workout gear. The space on the bus was so small that the girls dressed in front of each other and has long since lost embarrassment about it. “I suppose we could start later if you want to sleep.”

“I’m fine,” Skye said, tying up her hair. “I won’t be able to sleep anyway. I’m already awake.”

“Why don’t we start with some Tai Chi?” May suggested.

That stopped Skye. “What?”

“It’s a good way to warm up,” May said. “Stretches out the muscles and it’s a good focus practice. How does Ward usually warm you up?”

“Basic stretches and five miles on the treadmill,” Skye said, pulling a face.

May actually smiled a little. “I have a feeling you might like Tai Chi more. Not to say running isn’t important, but I prefer to work it into my workout later on rather than first thing.”

After teaching Skye the basics of Tai Chi, May led her to the mats. “What…?” Skye said looking around. “Where’s the punching bag?”

May froze and looked at her in confusion. “Hasn’t Ward taught you how to spar yet?”

Skye shrugged. “Not really,” Skye said. “He’s shown me a couple of moves…”

“Can you show me?” May asked.

Skye actually didn’t look too bad showing May her moves, but May immediately spotted the obvious. Ward was training her to be a brute strength fighter while she needed to be trained like… well, like a woman.

“That’s enough,” May said after a few minutes. “I think I have a good idea of where we can start.”

“Sorry,” Skye said. “Physical activity has never been my strong suit. I thought about switching to SciTech but Fitz and Simmons started talking about chemistry and electrical engineering and I… got lost.”

May smirked. “You probably would have gone to the Communications academy anyway.”

“Why?”

“Let me show you a few things and I’ll make sure all your questions are answered,” May said. Skye was rather amazed at how much she could learn in an hour. Towards the end, Skye actually felt like she knew how to throw a punch. “Let’s call it for now,” May said, going over and tossing Skye a water bottle.

“Really?” Skye asked. She felt more exhausted than Ward’s workouts had ever left her, but she also felt like she’d accomplished something.

“You want more?” May asked, giving her an appraising look.

“I mean, I’m pretty sure I want to die, but you’ve already taught me more than Ward ever has and I’m assuming you’re doing this only because of some regulation or rule says you have to…”

“I promised Sharon that I’d keep you safe. Letting Ward try to train you might be entertaining, but it wouldn’t fulfill my promise.”

Skye was confused. “Why… would it be entertaining?”

“Because apparently Ward can’t train you out of a paper bag,” May said, her voice gaining a harsh bite to it.

It took a moment for it to register what May was saying. “Are you saying Ward was training me badly?” she asked.

“I’m saying that he’s used to brute force. For women of our size and body type, you’ll never win a fight that way. I use my opponent’s strength against them more often than I use my strength.”

“So there’s more than one way to fight?” Skye asked. Apart from SHIELD, the only fight experience she had was a few moves Matt had taught her, and he had learned them, she assumed, from his father the boxer.

May actually looked a little amused. “Yes. There are many ways to fight. Some of them are just different styles and others benefit specific body types. Now come on, pack a few days’ worth of clothes. We’re going to a hotel.”

Skye’s face fell. “But… I don’t have any money… You can go…” 

“It’ll make sense when we get there,” May said.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daisy meets her other soulmate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry that I couldn't post last week. The apartment above mine caught fire. No one was hurt, but I got a whole ton of water damage. I spent all last weekend dealing with it and have just started catching up in recent days.

Skye packed a bag and within the hour they were in the nicest hotel she’d been in yet. It was the kind of place where you could pay for discretion and there were some extremely nice rooms. Instead of going to the front desk, May went directly to the elevators and they went up to one of the guest floors. May knocked on the door, a very confused Skye behind her.

The door immediately opened and before Skye could register who was in the doorway, she had launched herself at them. Warm arms embraced her as her soulmark sang. “I thought I was going to have to spend another Christmas alone,” Skye admitted softly.

“I could never leave a soulmate alone on Christmas,” Sharon said.

Skye felt movement behind Sharon and she looked up to see  _ Steve Rogers _ looking at her in reverence. “You’ll never be alone again as long as we can help it,” he said to her carefully.

Skye’s mind went blank as her brain processed what Steve had just said. “None of us will,” Skye said with equal care after a moment.

Steve broke into a grin. “It’s nice to meet you, Skye. Sharon’s told me a lot about you.”

Skye looked at Sharon searchingly. “You could have mentioned that our mysterious soulmate that you met was  _ Steve Rogers _ ,” Skye said.

Sharon shrugged. “I wanted it to be a surprise, she said.

“I need Skye for a minute,” May said.

Skye came over and May took her hand “Disengage bracelet,” May said. Skye was shocked to see the bracelet unlock.

“May?” she asked curiously.

May pocketed the device. “I cleared it with the proper people. As long as you’re here, you don’t have to wear it.”

Skye rushed forward and hugged May. May stiffened for a moment, then relaxed into the embrace. “I’m just a phone call away,” she said. “Sharon’s going to be in charge of your training over break, though I’m sure Steve will have plenty of pointers. I  _ will _ be taking over once we’re back on the Bus so make sure you don’t slack off.” With that, May was gone.

“We have a week,” Skye breathed. “Just the three of us… This is the best Christmas present ever,” Skye breathed as she unintentionally started undressing Steve with her eyes.

Sharon laughed. “We figured we’d spend some time getting to know each other, get down and dirty, and lots of room service.”

“Sounds… expensive,” Skye said carefully, looking around the room. Really it was a suite. There were two couches in front of a big screen TV and a fireplace below the flatscreen. Just behind one of the couches was a four-person dining table in an alcove. Beyond that was a small, very private balcony that looked out onto the city below. To her right, Skye could see a bathroom, complete with a large jacuzzi and to her left she could see the bedroom where she could only see a part of the bed, but it appeared to span the entire width of the room. Coulson had set her up with a bank account so she could deposit her income that SHIELD paid her, giving her access to savings for the first time in her life, but she still would never be able to afford a week in a place like this.

“Stark kicked me out of the tower and handed me a credit card,” Steve said. “He said I needed to see more of the world. I might be using it as a cover as to why I’m here. Stark assures me the staff is extremely discreet, so it won’t get out that we’re here.”

Skye was overwhelmed by the tidal wave of information. Not only was Sharon there, but they had a third now, and it was Steve Rogers. They were in a massive hotel suite that probably cost more money in one night than she’d paid for in rent in her eight years on the road total.

“Let’s go to the couch and relax some,” Sharon said. They all ended up on the same L-shaped couch, Skye sitting a little stiffly.

“How was your morning?” Sharon asked.

“Pretty interesting, actually,” Skye said. “May taught me a lot of stuff that Ward has never even mentioned and she said that she’s going to be my SO from now on.”

Sharon gave Skye an impressed look. “She must see potential in you. The last time May took on a rookie, it was Maria Hill.”

“The deputy director of SHIELD?” Skye asked in shock. “But… May said I was better suited for Comms.”

Sharon shrugged. “We’re probably all going to need to be able to defend ourselves against whatever’s coming.”

“What are the differences between the Academies anyway?” Steve asked. “No one ever really explained it.”

“SciTech division handles weapons and biochemical development, Ops is usually agents who are in the field, and Communications is made up of programmers and hackers like Skye who have built SHIELD’s networks from the ground up,” Sharon said.

“Sounds like fun,” Skye said with a smile. “Is it hard to get in?”

“You need to be able to proficiently program in six different languages just to be considered, and then you have to pass a bunch of tests. Most people wouldn’t understand this kind of stuff if someone sat down and explained it to them,” Sharon explained. “That said, students from Ops and SciTech equally think that Comms is easier to get into because the entry requirements don’t include any kind of formal education.”

“Seems naive to think that one school is better than the other,” Steve said frowning. “We’re all working towards the same goal.”

Skye lit up. “Pieces solving a puzzle,” she said smiling. She had been thinking that Fate had been crazy to place her in a triad with Steve Rogers, but now she wasn’t so sure. 

Steve nodded in agreement. “We couldn’t have won the War without the Commandos, but people like to put me in the spotlight.”

“I get that,” Skye said. “The group I was with before, some of them liked to put me in the spotlight as the group’s best hacker. But I didn’t want to be the best, I just wanted to do my part.”

Steve looked at her, eyes full of compassion. “Sharon told me about your background. It kinda just came out. I hope you don’t mind. Though with you as my soulmate I’m sure you’ll have me educated in no time.”

Skye was relieved that she wouldn’t have to go through all of it with Steve. “I will. And I don’t mind you knowing about my past. I have no secrets from you guys.” She paused, a thought occurring to her. “You know, it never occurred to me, but we’re married in the eyes of the Catholic Church now, aren’t we?” she asked Steve. “We’ve completed our bond.”

Sharon looked a little surprised by this news, but Steve nodded. “It’s been a long-accepted practice that since soulmates bond on a spiritual level, once a bond begins and is accepted by all soulmates involved, that’s when the marriage begins. It’s practically unheard of for soulmates to deny each other if they do meet, so the Church figured it would be inefficient to make them go through a lengthy marriage process when the union is blessed by God already.”

“I’m glad US Law isn’t the same way,” Sharon said. “Not that I don’t want to be married, but it’s a little early for that.”

Skye turned to Sharon and pecked her on the lips. “I’m okay with keeping things care-free for now. Especially since I’m on a Mobile Command and I don’t know when that’s going to end.”

“You’re safer on the Bus than anywhere else,” Sharon said, kissing her back. 

“I know, I just missed you,” Skye said quietly.

“I missed you too, Skye,” Sharon said softly. 

Skye had spent hours upon hours staying up late and talking to Sharon over the last few weeks, but once the initial shock of their third being  _ Captain America _ , Skye realized that he was just Steve Rogers and he was a total stranger to her.

“So have you read up on what they say these days about Captain America?” Skye asked before she lost her nerve.

Steve laughed. “Nat seemed to think it was one of the more necessary parts of bringing me up to speed,” he said. “Most of it is true, but the whole ‘golden boy’ reputation was rather exaggerated.”

“Yeah? So what’s the real Steve Rogers like?” Skye asked.

Steve grinned. “I don’t know… just like every other guy, I guess. I’m just Steve from Brooklyn.”

“Yeah, I’ve seen pictures,” Skye said, grinning. Steve blushed. “No, you were cute back then too.”

“A girl like you wouldn’t have given me the time of day back then, let alone both of you,” Steve said.

Skye scoffed. “I grew up in Hell’s Kitchen. I’ve dated my share of string-bean starving artists. That’s basically who my last boyfriend was, except he was more of a hacker-based artist.” Sharon nodded in agreement.

“Yeah?” Steve asked, interested. “What happened?”

Skye went red, still a little sensitive about Miles. “Turned out he wasn’t who he said he was. He told me he wanted to share all information freely and then he turned around and sold someone’s life for a million dollars.” 

Steve’s gaze went steely.  “He’s in prison, right?”

“He’s in worse than prison,” Skye said with a vindictive smirk. “He’s got a SHIELD bracelet on that’s so locked down he can’t go near a computer. It’s a fate worse than death for someone like him.”

“Did he hurt you?” Steve growled.

Skye shook her head, “Only my pride,” she said, instinctively putting a hand on Steve’s arm to calm him down. Once the mission had been over, she had allowed Miles’ betrayal to hurt. She hadn’t really expected comfort from the Bus Team, but since she had burned her Rising Tide ties and lost all her old friends in the process, it had been hard to stomach the team’s rejection when they hadn’t known the whole story.

“I’m glad,” Steve said softly. “I just found you… I was unmarked in my first life. I… I don’t know what I’d do if I lost either of you.”

Skye bit her lip, squeezed Steve’s bicep. “You’re not going to lose us, Steve,” she said softly.

Skye listened as Steve told her about his life. Sharon already told Steve and Skye about her stories.

Finally, they stopped when Skye’s stomach rumbled. Steve laughed. “My thoughts exactly. Sharon, did you find the room service menu?”

Since she was on vacation, she ordered a burger and chips. Sharon, also clearly on vacation, had fish and chips. Steve had two pastramis with fries, chicken and waffles, and an order of lasagna.

“You really gonna eat all that food?” Skye asked, impressed. 

“The serum burns through a lot of calories,” Steve admitted. He paused a moment. “Don’t worry, I’ll still have plenty of room for dessert.”

Skye’s eyes widened, then decided to grin. “I don’t know. Normally I don’t order dessert on the first date, but with my soulmates I just might need seconds.”

Sharon coughed, “You know, I think I see a fondue pot on the dessert menu.”

Once lunch was delivered, They all settled down to eat on the dining table. It started with Steve stealing a chip from Skye’s plate once their waiter had left. Skye retaliated by stealing a fry. By the end of the meal, they were sitting next to each other, eating off of each other’s plates without hesitation. They had decided to hold off on the fondue pot until dinner (especially since the hotel offered a three-course fondue meal) and settled for a brownie a la mode with hot fudge on the side. After feeding each other dessert, they retired to the couch where they put on a movie and snuggled together. Afterwards, no one could really remember who started it, but Skye felt Steve rubbing her feet after a little while and at some point she snuggled close to Sharon and started kissing her deeply, trailing her lips over Sharon’s skin. Eventually, the world faded out and it was just the three of them on the massive couch. 

Once Steve had spent enough time on Skye’s feet, he moved to Sharon, cautious to split his attentions between the two of them. Skye used the opportunity to turn up the heat on her and Sharon’s makeout session. Steve’s hand started rubbing on the inseam on her jeans, causing Skye to make tiny moaning sounds. Skye could feel a growing mound press against her as Steve sandwiched her between him and Sharon, making her squeak a little uncomfortably.

“I think that’s our cue to take this to the bedroom,” Sharon said breathlessly.

Skye’s mind instantly went to the gymnastics of being in a sexual relationship with two other people. She’d never experienced a threesome, though Miles had repeatedly expressed interest on various occasions. She was very much comfortable with sleeping with a woman, but had always felt like if she’d participated in one with Miles she was cheating the universe or Fate. She wondered how it would work. Due to their proximity, Skye could feel the barest hint of hesitation from Steve as well.

Sharon sensed the hesitation from both of them, then grabbed them and pulled them towards the bedroom. “Come on, Skye. Help me unwrap a National Monument,” she said, starting to undress Steve from the top down. Steve played along eagerly, toeing off his shoes. Skye unbuttoned and unzipped Steve’s jeans and started working the denim down his thighs. Skye was surprised to see that Steve went commando. “Oh yum, Steve,” Sharon said. 

Steve’s penis was red and throbbing and Skye’s brain broke as she vaguely wondered what alternate universe she’d fallen into that this was happening. “Doesn’t he look delicious, Skye?” Sharon asked as Steve toed off his jeans. Skye automatically licked her lips.

“Take a taste,” Steve said, groaning at whatever Sharon was doing. Skye leaned forward and  _ licked _ . It was like nothing Skye had ever experienced before. She licked some more, then took his penis in his mouth and sucked. She’d given head, certainly, but things had never synced up so easily.  “Skye,” Steve was saying after not too long. “Skye I’m going to…” He cut off with a groan as warm, salty fluid entered her mouth and she swallowed. Steve sighed heavily and Skye looked up to see Steve’s hands under Sharon’s shirt as they kissed heavily. 

Skye came up behind Sharon and lifted her shirt, granting Steve easier access. Sharon’s lacy, hot pink bra made Skye a little self-conscious about her own underwear, a sports bra and raggedy underwear. She hadn’t come properly prepared for this. The underwear in her bag was all the same.

Sharon moaned and tossed her head back. Steve used the opportunity to reach his torso around Sharon and kiss Skye so hard she practically saw stars. Skye helped Sharon out of her pants and underwear, which thankfully didn’t match, but were still cute, and Sharon led them over to the bed.

“Get on my face Skye,” Sharon said invitingly while Steve began probing Sharon’s core with his fingers.

Skye took off her pants and underwear, tucking the worn panties into her jeans to hide them. She approached Sharon a little timidly as Steve pumped a single finger in and out of Sharon’s core. 

“Come on, Skye,” Sharon said. “I want to see all of you.”

Skye blushed, paused, then pulled her tee shirt off. “Beautiful,” Steve intoned. “Both of you are so…”

“Perfect,” Sharon panted in agreement. She cried out as Steve hit a specific spot. 

“Are you ready, Sharon?” Steve asked, nervousness in his voice. 

“Only if Skye gets over here and sits on my face like I told her,” Sharon said. Skye’s core clenched in a way she’d never felt before when someone gave her an order. It forced her into action, straddling Sharon’s face, facing towards Steve. 

Skye helped Steve put on a condom while Steve’s fingers were busy. Steve was big by anyone’s standards, but for Skye herself… it’d be a bit more of a stretch than she was used to.

“I’ll fit,” Steve said reassuringly as Sharon groaned, then intensified her tongue work on Skye’s clit. 

Skye groaned herself. “Think I don’t know that after I just gave you a blowjob?”

“Yeah, sorry,” Steve stammered, pausing to allow Sharon to adjust. “I don’t… I mean…”

“Steve?” Skye asked. “Are we popping your cherry right now?”

“No…” Steve said slowly.

“But you’re not very experienced?” Skye asked. 

“There were a couple of girls… most girls didn’t give me the time of day. I hope you don’t…”

Skye closed her eyes, heat curling in her core. “It’s fine,” She said, unable to speak much further. Skye felt Sharon stiffen and cry out as she came.

Skye followed not too soon after, stiffening before slipping onto the bed, panting. Steve came not long after.

Skye could practically feel the bond strengthen. “You two haven’t done that before?” Skye asked hesitantly, a little shocked.

Sharon sat up a little, looking a little confusedly at Skye. “We’d never…” she said slowly, looking hurt. “We wanted to wait for you. Give Steve a minute and we’ll prove it to you.”

“I don’t… I don’t know if I can orgasm again,” Skye said.

“Trust us,” Sharon said. “Just relax, and we’ll get you there. Just follow my lead.” Skye had a feeling that Sharon was going to be driving a large portion of situations like this one, at least for a while. Sharon rearranged Skye so that Sharon was sitting with Skye’s head in her lap.”Close your eyes…” Sharon said softly, starting to stroke Skye’s shoulders and arms and sides, kissing her deeply from time to time. She tweaked one of Skye’s nipples at odd intervals so that Skye couldn't determine a pattern. Skye yelped the first few times, then moaned and groaned as she felt wetness curl between her legs. 

Sharon said something and Steve was moving her legs apart and sticking a thick, rough finger into her vagina. Time passed, though Skye wasn’t sure how long. She felt Steve brush a spot inside of her a couple of times and the last time, her body arched to meet him.

Then, suddenly, she could feel as Steve entered her, stretching her until it felt like she was going to tear apart. Sharon’s attentions stopped and the world came back a little.

Steve was inches from her face. She could feel his hard abs against her flat stomach. “Everybody okay?” Sharon asked. 

“Mmmm…” Skye said, rather unable to use words.

“Yeah,” Steve said in a strained voice.

“Steve, I think it’s time to fuck her senseless,” Sharon said with a smile.

“I think you're right,” Steve agreed. And they did.

They didn’t spend the whole week naked, of course. Exercise equipment was delivered to their room every morning and they all worked out together. They talked about their pasts, the future, and some truly deep conversations were had from the jacuzzi tub. All three discovered they had different parts of them in common with one soulmate or the other. Sharon and Steve had told them about their apartments in Washington. They showed her pictures and things which made Skye feel something that she’d never been. Homesick.

The largest Christmas feast Skye had ever seen was served to them on Christmas Day, and even with Steve’s appetite they had leftovers for a few days afterwards. There were a few days where the three of them went straight back to bed after their morning workout and lounged around all day, but for the most part they made the most of their suite. There were in-room massages, hot chocolate, and a lot of getting to know one another.

“Penny for your thoughts?” Steve asked, curiously. 

Skye turned and smiled at him, then turned back to the New Year’s Eve fireworks that could be seen from their balcony. Skye was amazed to find that she had blinked and week had passed. “I just… I don’t want to go back,” she admitted softly. “I think…” she hesitated, but they had bonded so much over that there was no hiding anything from her soulmates. “I’m afraid that I’m going to go back and wake up and this all would have been a dream.”

Steve wrapped his arms around her, his front to her back so they could both watch the colored explosions. “I swear to you, Skye. I will spend every breath that I can reminding you that it isn’t. I have something for you.”

He produced a StarkPad that he’d been working on, off and on all week, with a stylus. The screen held a digital drawing of the three of them, all wrapped up together in the sheets and blankets of their hotel bed. “I want you to hold on to this,” he said softly.

It took a moment for Skye to realize that he meant the tablet. “Steve,” she said softly. “I thought we agreed to no gifts this year?”

“It’s not to keep,” Steve said. “It’s for the three of us to share. But you’re going to need it most right now. There are all our photos on there too and that cloud… thing…”

“Steve, there aren’t any dirty pictures on here…” Skye said. She had talked to them about the privacy of the internet and how they would have to be careful.

“No,” Steve said. “Just pictures of us. Pictures to remind you how special you are. Just hold onto it until this whole undercover business is over. I want you to remember who you are, but also, no matter what, I want you to remember that both of us will come for you the second you need us to.”

“It’s freezing out here,” Sharon said coming out wrapped in a throw. “Why are we out here again?”

“Because I want to watch the celebration,” Skye said. “Besides, “Steve and I don’t really get cold. Not like you do.” Steve never got cold any more, and Skye had had to endure enough cold winters in threadbare clothes that she simply didn’t notice anymore. 

“Unfair,” Sharon pouted. She swiftly lost it as she grinned and indicated the waiters behind her. “The chef sent up a huge tray of desserts and a chocolate fondue fountain with his compliments. Something about him owing Steve a debt for saving his grandfather.” The waiters set up the veritable buffet and left them to their privacy.

“I get that more often than you’d think,” Steve said. “There were a lot of POW Camps and Concentration Camps that the Howling Commandos liberated, especially at the end of the war. Even though I wasn’t with them when a lot of liberations happened, people tend to associate me with their loved ones surviving.”

“So you let them thank you,” Skye said, curious.

Steve nodded. “I wish they wouldn’t, but I understand. Rebecca, Bucky’s sister, had children and grandchildren before she passed. I feel like I owe them something, even though they insist I don’t.”

“We all owe and are owed for our actions and inactions,” Sharon said wisely. “It’s the universe in balance. It’s not about ‘score’.”

Skye swiped a strawberry and dunked it into the chocolate. She let the night air cool the chocolate for a few seconds before smearing a bit on Sharon’s nose.

“Come on, no deep or sad talks tonight. We should celebrate what we have right now, not what might happen or what has.”

\--------

The next morning sucked. May picked her up right after morning workout, and it had been a more tearful goodbye than Skye was anticipating in front of May.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean…” she said once they were in the car. 

“You might want to clean up when we get back to base,” May said. “FitzSimmons are due in two hours and both of them would be curious if you looked like you’d been crying.”

“Did you have a good week?”

“Lots of reading, lots of meditating, lots of quiet,” May said.

“So the best week ever?” Skye joked, trying to force herself out of the funk that separating from Sharon and Steve had put her in.

May’s smile turned up very slightly. “I very much enjoyed it. You seem… different.”

“You haven’t known me very long,” Skye pointed out.

“I suppose that’s true. But you seem… calmer. More relaxed.”

“It might be the bond,” Skye noted. “I can still feel them.”

“Good,” May said. “It’s good that you bonded with them so well.”

“Yeah,” Skye said. “Is… is Ward still my SO?”

“Coulson approved the transfer verbally. When he comes back this afternoon, he’ll sign the paperwork.”

“For the record,” Skye said slowly. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me yet. I’m going to make you hate yourself by the end.”

“I want this,” Skye said. “Now, more than ever.”

“Does anyone know about your soulmarks?” May asked.

“Apart from Miles? Just the nuns and a friend of mine I haven’t seen in a decade,” Skye said.

“Would Miles tell anyone?” May asked.

“Nah. I mean, he’s anti-government, but he knows we both have secrets. Besides, even if he does spill, having two marks isn’t exactly unheard of.”

“True. So you never told FitzSimmons or Ward about Agent Carter?”

Skye looked down at her lap. “I didn’t. Maybe I should have trusted them…”

“It’s better that you didn’t,” May said. “Being the soulmate of… Let’s just say half the people are going to want to be your friend and half the people are going to hate you.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Canon diverges. Things happen. I'm sorry.

Ward was more than a little pissed when he found out that Skye was no longer his rookie. He made snide comments about the change, and watched Skye and May spar and train on numerous occasions. Skye knew that Ward didn’t notice that she noticed it, and also the gazes that he kept giving her. It was getting kind of creepy. Even FitzSimmons started to pick up on Ward’s behavior. He snapped at FitzSimmons more often, once getting so loud that Skye locked herself into the cockpit and refused to come out until Ward had calmed down. Coulson tried to explain it to Skye that it might be after-effects of the Berserker staff. Skye didn’t point out to Coulson that May wasn’t acting any different. In fact, May was acting almost kind to Skye. She encouraged Skye to use the cockpit whenever she wanted to, since it was unofficially off-limits to everyone else, and was ever so slowly giving Skye a foundation that she’d never had before.

Rather than having all the downtime that Ward had given her, May had her studying various fight styles, manipulation techniques, both Mandarin and Farsi, the basics of how to withstand interrogation, and how to fly an airplane. Soon it seemed that Skye’s every waking moment was being spent training and she was exhausted every night by bedtime. Skye had thrown herself into learning everything May could teach her and she especially enjoyed flying. Even just cruising at altitude was an exhilarating feeling and Skye understood the attraction. In addition to the rush, there was something special about being up there with the clouds. It was peaceful, and since May didn’t talk much, it gave Skye time to sort out her thoughts and text with her soulmates. Most of the time she’d call Sharon or Steve to talk at bedtime and fall asleep mid-conversation. Her schedule was so packed that she was practically dreaming about training in her sleep.

Though she was a little shocked at what real Ops training looked like (at least by May’s standards), May seemed to play to Skye’s strengths and Skye was amazed to find that she was improving during their sessions and it was getting easier to wake up at 5am.

It was only because May was teaching Skye non-verbal communication that she picked up on what May wanted her to do when Hand kicked Skye off the Bus. She immediately set to work tracking Coulson down by following the money. It took some creative thinking, since Hand had locked her bracelet security way down, but Skye had finally nailed it and called the location into May. 

“Good job,” was the praise she got when she came back to the plane. May reached for her bracelet. “Disengage bracelet.”

“May?” Skye asked in confusion.

“You earned it,” May said. “You took my orders, didn’t panic and call your soulmates, and trusted us to have your back. Don’t think I don’t know how big that is for you.”

Skye suddenly rushed forward and hugged May tightly. “Thank you,” Skye said quietly. “I… you’re right. I trust you. I’m sorry it took me so long.”

“We all go at our own pace with these things, Skye,” May said calmly, extracting herself from the hug. “Now come on, I want you to do pre-flights solo and I’ll supervise you taking off.”

Skye wasn’t really surprised by the SciTech Academy. It looked like a college campus - the type of place that she generally avoided. It wasn’t that she hated school, but she hated the people who came out of it. They had a tendency to dismiss or deride her. She was surprised to hear that Ward had never been to this academy either, and the conversation quickly switched to the differences between the three schools.

“Comms is the school that you’d be in, Skye,” Simmons said dismissively. “It’s the easiest to get into.”

The words stung Skye, even though she knew Simmons wasn’t aware of the effect of her words. “Why do you say that?” she asked, using the training that May had taught her.

“Simple academics. You don’t even need a High School diploma to get in,” Simmons said. Ward was giving Skye a suspicious glance, clearly wondering where she was going with the conversation.

“So what is required?” Skye asked. “I mean, there has to be some kind of requirement.”

“I think you need to pass a few tests regarding computers and data analytics,” Fitz chimed in.

“So you need to know how to code,” Skye said nodding. “Since Comms deals with SHIELD’s network, I’m assuming you need to know more than one language.”

Simmons frowned. “I guess,” she said slowly.

“And since it deals with Network Security, I’m assuming you need to understand a good deal of the policies set by the Rainbow Books,” Skye continued. “Probably a good portion of TCP/IP protocols, firewall security prevention which includes white hat hacking because you can’t prevent hacking without knowing how to do it… oh, and physical server safety measures against fire and water damage.”

Fitz looked rather impressed while Simmons and Ward looked entirely lost. “That’s a good point,” Fitz said earnestly. “How do you know so much about Comms Academy?”

Skye shrugged. “A little bird told me that to get into Comms Academy you need to know six computer languages. You know, most of the best hackers don’t have high school degrees. It’s smart of them not to make it a requirement.”

“Guess we shouldn’t be counting Comms out of the race of what’s the hardest to get into,” Fitz said with a grin. “Don’t you think, Simmons?”

“Yeah,” Simmons said, looking suspiciously at Skye. Maybe it was more bold than she usually was on the Bus, but it had been hard not to be after spending time with Steve.

When the mission was over and Gill was in custody, Skye found herself back in the Bus’ cockpit, quietly texting Sharon and Steve and avoiding FitzSimmons and Ward. The cockpit had become a bit of a haven, since she and May were the only two who ever went up there. She tried her best to shake off the underhanded remarks she heard from her teammates at the Academy.

_ ‘Wish we could be there to give you hugs,’  _ Sharon texted her.

_ ‘You’re perfect just the way you are,’ _ Steve added. He’d been getting better at texting since Skye had been patiently teaching him how. _ ‘Most people in my day didn’t have a degree anyway.’  _

They texted back and forth while May and Coulson and Ward were outside dealing with the aftermath. She knew that normally May would have her shadowing her, but after seeing the look on Skye’s face, she sent her to the Bus. Slowly but surely, she began to feel more like herself. There was more to life than a degree, and her soulmates loved her regardless of if she had no degrees or a million.

After a while, May came in; Skye put away her phone and started pre-flight checks without May prompting her. May sat down, nodding in approval at Skye’s work, then hit the com. “Everybody strap in,” she said into the microphone so everyone on the Bus could hear her. 

Skye took off, and they sat in silence for a minute before Skye spoke up. “You ever wish people saw you for who you really are? I mean… I assume because of the whole nickname thing you do, but I know there’s more to you than some bad-ass ninja with rageface.” May glanced over at Skye who shrugged. “I mean, I guess all of us really aren’t the way people see us in the grand scheme of things but it would be nice for people if they could see the truth.”

“Did something happen?” May asked patiently.

“The others think I’m dumb,” Skye admitted. “They still think I was caught by SHIELD, rather than letting myself get caught so I could find out the truth about my parents.” This had been a point of discussion between May and Skye during training. Since May had processed the fact that Skye had been so desperate to find her parents she’d let herself be caught by SHIELD, they’d talked a lot about it. “They…” she stopped to swallow and will away the tears that were welling up. “These last ten years, everyone’s always ever seen what they wanted to. Poor, orphaned, dumb Skye. Even Miles sometimes treated me like I was… worthless. But the life I left… I was a straight A student who had skipped two grades, had a perfect score on the SATs, and an early admission to MIT. I mean, I was a foster kid. Some of the homes weren’t exactly easy to be in and my life was far from idyllic, but I had a support system. I had friends. I was happy...” 

May sat silently, waiting for Skye to be ready to continue, somehow sensing she wasn’t done. “But the latest foster home I was in… bad things happened there. I got into a situation where it was life or death and I couldn’t see a way out. So I ran. And the girl… Mary Poots was what the nuns had named me... Mary didn’t exist any more after that. The placement changed me too much.”

“So you became Skye,” May concluded.

Skye nodded. “Suddenly the truth behind where I came from was more important. It probably wasn’t the right way to go about things,” she admitted. “But I was sixteen and terrified. I had nowhere to go. No one to help me.”

“Skye, what happened at SciTech Academy?” May asked gently.

Skye shrugged, “It’s fine. It’s stupid anyway. Simmons just made it clear that she thinks I’m not smart enough to get into SciTech. It just made me wonder…”

“I’m sorry you had to go through that,” May said compassionately.

“You… you don’t sound surprised,” Skye said incredulously.

“I knew most of it already. Your file included the court case. I think after all the charges were added up, the foster parent in question was sentenced to 90 years in prison with no chance of parole. He’ll die in there for what he did.” May had informed Skye that she had gotten her file from St. Agnes’. Skye had been fearful at first, but once May had made it clear she wasn’t going to judge her, Skye seemed to calm down.

“Does Coulson know?” Skye asked softly.

“No,” May said honestly. She’d removed that part of Skye’s file even when sharing it with Andrew. Some things, May knew from experience, were better left private.

“Can you promise me that you’ll keep it that way?” Skye requested.

“I’ll keep it quiet unless it’s absolutely necessary,” May promised. Skye looked at her sharply. “What I mean is, if Coulson not knowing would put you in danger in some way, I’d tell him, but it’s your choice who knows as long as no one is harmed or in danger.”

“It’s just… a part of my past that I don’t want to talk about. I mean, Steve and Sharon know…” It had been a hard night when Skye had told them about the placement over Christmas break. Steve had nearly broken several items as she told the story until Skye let him hold her. Sharon had gone very pale. They had spent the rest of the night caring for Skye to reassure themselves that everyone in their bond was all right.

“I get it,” May said. “Thank you for trusting me.”

They sat in silence for a long time after that, Skye glanced at the StarkPad Steve had lent her which sat propped next to the consoles as she flew. “Do you want to know what we found in Mexico?” May asked nearly an hour later.

Skye looked up from what she was doing. “If you can,” she said slowly.

May carefully told Skye a rephrased version of what Lumley had told them. She talked about how a village had been destroyed and whatever had been after Skye had started killing off the agents who had rescued her, so she’d been placed in the foster system as a 0-8-4 for her protection.

Skye was heartbroken that so many people had died because of her, but May gently corrected her and insisted that Skye wasn’t responsible for their deaths, reminding her that she was just a baby at the time. That it was on someone else for all the deaths that had been caused.

Their next mission was one to Italy. Hearing her rookie over coms reminded May that she needed to teach Skye how to fake an accent. Unfortunately, the mission turned into the biggest FUBAR that May had ever seen, and the team ended up scattered across the Italian countryside. With the rest of the team preoccupied, Skye had gone in alone to stop Quinn. She hadn’t come out again.

They found Fitz in the middle of the driveway, unconscious. The house was abandoned and, just as suddenly as Skye had entered their lives, she had disappeared without a trace.

Fitz was fine, except for a goose egg from being hit from behind. He blamed himself more than anything. Simmons similarly looked on the edge of tears and Ward gained a default ‘hate face’, as Skye had originally put it. May had immediately put in a call on her private line to Fury, worried about the rookie, and received orders to get to the Triskellion as quickly as possible. 

The second they landed at the Triskellion, May and Coulson were escorted to a meeting alone, to the others’ strong objections. Whatever meeting there was about Skye, the junior agents clearly wanted to attend. Coulson was more than a little confused at the fact that FitzSimmons and Ward were being excluded, but May knew exactly why they were being left out. 

If Centipede had any connection to whatever Fury thought was coming… they might need more than just Steve Rogers to keep their feet under them. Especially since Steve probably wasn’t feeling particularly objective at the moment. And since they didn’t know who to trust, they had to keep things in house. Reading Coulson in to the situation was going to be chaotic enough.

Coulson’s eyebrows rose when he spotted Steve and Sharon there, huddled together. May made a beeline for them, since they’d know the most about Skye’s current state. Sharon suddenly collapsed to the ground sobbing while Steve held onto her for dear life. Pain lined both of their faces. 

“Is she alright?” May asked. “Please tell me she’s alive…” When Sharon couldn’t answer, May cupped both sides of Sharon’s face with her hands, an edge of desperation in her voice. “Sharon. I know it hurts. But I need you to answer.”

“She’s still alive,” Sharon gasped softly between her sobs. “But… she’s in so much pain...” Sharon buried herself back in Steve’s arms. May sank to her knees, trying her best not to be reminded of the little girl in Bahrain. Had she failed Skye as well?

Steve seemed grief-stricken himself but seemed to have a better tolerance for the pain they were both clearly in. “We’re afraid that they’re questioning Skye about… about us,” Steve said in a hollow voice. “About me.”

“What are you talking about?” Coulson asked bluntly. “Why is Skye so important to you two? What the hell is going on?”

“Well, apart from what she can do to any computer network in the world,” May said slowly. “She’s their soulmate.”

Coulson’s eyebrows shot skyward. “What?” he asked in a dazed voice.

“I met her at the Hub a few months ago,” Sharon said. “We all spent Christmas together…”

“Why keep it from me, though?” Coulson asked. “Why keep it quiet at all?” His question was valid. Soulmates were something that were celebrated because they were so rare. For a triad to be completed was a big deal

“It was decided it was best to keep it quiet,” May said.

“SHIELD has been infiltrated,” Fury said. “A group has been working against us. I’m keeping the information as compartmentalized as possible because we don’t know how many members are in SHIELD or how high it goes.”

“How high do you think…” Steve started.

“At least one member of the World Security Council is involved,” Fury said. “I found that out just after the Battle of New York.”

“Who?” Coulson said.

Fury looked directly at Steve when he answered. “HYDRA.”

For a solid ten seconds, nobody said anything. “I killed the Red Skull. The Commandos defeated HYDRA…” Steve said slowly.

“It seems that they somehow survived,” Fury said. “I’ve got a mole who came to me about a month after New York. Unfortunately,  _ they _ keep things compartmentalized, so he doesn’t know much. He’s been doing his best to get me information on membership and last I heard, he’s currently trying to get information on where they’re holding Skye.”

The others were processing the information, so Sharon spoke up. “How would they know she was our soulmate? We’ve never put anything officially on the record, so unless someone had eyes on the Hub…” Sharon paled, shooting a look at Fury while Steve set his jaw, cold fury in his eyes.

“I think the real question is how do we find her and get her back,” Steve said determinedly.

“You two will be assigned to Coulson’s team while you’re tracking down where they took Skye,” Fury said. “I’ll be in contact with my mole to try and find anything out.”

\----------

Skye wasn’t sure how long she’d been there. She knew they had beaten her and questioned her about SHIELD. They seemed to know about her soulmarks as well as who they belonged to. When she’d faced down Quinn in the Villa, she hadn’t expected to face an army of Quinn’s men as well. After watching Mike get his new leg and become Deathlock, she had attempted to escape so she could pass on the intel, but she’d been drugged and quickly subdued. She assumed that she was still drugged, since her head felt fuzzy as she sat with her back to a stone wall. Where, she was unsure. 

She had no concept of where she was or how much time had passed. The only way to mark time was the fact that soldiers came in intermittently and take her to a man named Whitehall. Whitehall had been tasked with trying to get her to talk, which involved him injecting her with various concentrations of truth serums, having thugs beat her, and drugging her with other cocktails. He even tied her up and got her drunk once. She had been promised that if she talked, it would all end, but even though she hadn’t eaten in days and every inch of her was covered in bruises, she refused to talk, at least about the subjects they wanted to hear about. SHIELD had protected her when she was a baby and agents had given their lives. It was her turn to return the favor. She couldn't betray her soulmates. 

So instead she talked about everything else. She started listing every episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer she remembered, in order, including the synopsis, guest stars and a review. After Buffy was covered she moved on to Firefly, and then a very hearty one-sided debate regarding the best Star Trek series, characters, and episodes. She confessed her soft spot for tribbles, her high school crush on Janeway, and her secret Star Trek fanfiction archive she kept on a ghost drive.

Later, she lay on the floor after her last beating, barely conscious, only regretting not being able to say goodbye to her soulmates. However much time had passed, she knew she was getting pretty sick and doubted these goons would intervene. She hadn’t walked in ages to her torture sessions. Her knees and ankles hurt horribly from the beatings and she was too weak to stand. Instead, two of them dragged her to Whitehall for each ‘session’. She was sure that her feet were bleeding since they had taken her shoes and socks. Two of them had been talking about how using something called Faustus to get her to comply hadn’t worked. She vaguely recalled being strapped to a machine and the white-hot pain that had hit her as she’d been forced to look at the blinding lights. She raised her head briefly, barely withholding the groan of pain, and noticed that the room was empty and the computer they were using to take notes was left unattended. 

She internally nodded to herself decidedly. If she was going to go down, she was going to give her soulmates a fighting chance. She staggered over and managed to get herself into the chair in front of the computer. Barely able to hold herself up, she started typing. The fact that one side of her face was so swollen that she could only see out of one eye made it harder and one of her hands ached as she typed, but she was determined. She needed to find out who had her and where she was. After geotagging her position and sending it to every source she could think of, then started checking the logs.

If not for the urgency of her situation, she would have been shocked by the fact that the files that she was locating were labeled HYDRA. She simply didn’t have the energy for emotions. She happened across a few lists that gave her a good idea of who was HYDRA and who wasn’t at SHIELD - at least those level 6 and above. She copied the list to the server she shared with Sharon and Steve, included a very quick goodbye in a TXT file, then erased her activity. At least now if she didn’t get out alive, they’d have some way to identify who was who within HYDRA.

She heard footsteps so she logged off and as quickly as possible got as far away from the computer as possible. Just before the door opened, she threw herself to the floor, sliding another foot.

This time she couldn’t hold back her cry of pain as her ribs protested the movement. The footsteps approached and a large figure bent over her. She stiffened, prepared for the worst.

“You’re going to be okay, Skye. I’m here to help you,” came a gravelly voice. “My name is Brock and I’m an Agent of SHIELD. I don’t stand with HYDRA.”

Skye stared at Brock as she suddenly began to cough. Brock took her hand and squeezed it reassuringly. She felt relief flood her body as she lost consciousness, only able to feel the pain in her body and the pressure from Brock’s hand.

She floated in the darkness, unsure about the passage of time. “Hold on, Skye. They’re coming. Just hold on a little longer,” said a voice. She didn’t know how to answer. She was so cold.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rescue and Recovery!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is a little later than normal. My favorite bar closed it's doors tonight and I wanted to be there for last call.
> 
> I can't believe I haven't said this yet, but an extremely large thank you to LadyWinterlight, my beta, for being so amazing.
> 
> And to all of you - I can't believe the reaction I'm getting off of this fic!

Three weeks had passed and SHIELD was no closer to finding Skye. Steve had grown tired of FitzSimmons’ increasingly frustrated bickering, Ward’s glaring at Sharon and Steve, and Coulson’s tense, constant presence like a worried father over a missing daughter. 

But then they got a breakthrough. Steve received an encrypted communication from an unknown source to check with Stark, that’d he’d have information on where she was. Steve had barely waited for Coulson and May to join him and Sharon before speeding off towards Avengers Tower.

“Capsicle, you said you needed access to JARVIS?” Tony said when May, Coulson, Steve, and Sharon entered the common floor of the tower. He hadn’t looked up at all. “Something about someone you’re missing?”

“A consultant,” Coulson said. Tony’s hand froze on his tablet as he registered the voice. His face was pale when he looked up at the group. For once, the futurist was dead silent. Wordlessly staring at Coulson. “Not an LMD, by the way. And yes, I was actually dead.”

Steve clenched his jaw. He hadn’t reacted well to the idea that Fury had brought Coulson back from the dead. Coulson had taken ten minutes to yell at Fury after the dust initially started to settle about Skye. The only reason why he stopped was because May reminded him that Skye was still in danger. Steve planned to yell at Fury more, once Skye was safe. “Our soulmate was on a mission for SHIELD and she was kidnapped three weeks ago. I got intel that you’d be able to track her down.”

“So we’re just not going to talk about the fact that he was dead and now he’s standing in our living room?” Tony said, clearly angry.

“We’ll get to it after our soulmate is safe,” Steve said gruffly. 

Tony stared at Steve for a moment then nodded. “You got intel on your girl?” Tony asked.

May handed over the thumb drive that included everything they had on Skye.

“Wait… this is Skyenet,” Tony said, scanning something. “ _ The _ Skyenet? You lost her? You had her and lost her? Does SHIELD know how to do anything right?”

“Who?” Coulson asked.

“She’s pretty much the best hacker in North America. Certainly one of the best in the world. I’ve been trying to recruit her for years, but I could never get her to sign on. Could barely  _ track  _ her. Only met her in person once and it was sort of by accident. How the hell did SHIELD manage to get her on their side? If I’d known she was willing to go government, I would have made her a different offer. I can pay better and I offer better benefits.”

“She got caught hacking our servers,” Coulson said. “There wasn’t exactly a choice in the matter.”

Tony burst out laughing. “You think… you think you  _ caught _ the same woman who made swiss cheese of pretty much every intelligence agency server in the world without leaving so much as a digital footprint?”

Coulson furrowed their eyebrows and looked at May before looking back at Tony. “Is she really that good?” Coulson asked.

“She confessed to me that she let herself get caught,” May revealed. “She wanted to find her family so badly that she was willing to risk prison.”

“I’m very good at hacking,” Tony added, not looking up, “but I’d be an idiot if I didn’t admit to the fact that she can hack circles around me.” Both May and Coulson were gobsmacked.

“Either I’m dreaming or hell just froze over,” May murmured, a proud smile appearing for an instant.

“Did you admit that someone is better than you in a tech-related field?” Coulson asked, shocked.

“Proudly,” Tony said. “JARVIS, check the usual IRC channels and Reddit threads for Skyenet’s presence.”

“Of course, sir,” JARVIS said.

“So, good enough for an enemy agency to kidnap her to force her to hack something?” May asked, fearing the answer. They assumed that it had been Centipede, but Quinn could have handed Skye off to anyone.

Tony was already typing away. “She’s better.”

“Sir, there are several messages with Skyenet’s username was geotagged 3.56 hours ago.”

“Where?” Steve demanded.

“El Hierro island,” JARVIS reported.

“Get the jet ready,” Steve said. “And suit up.”

Thor was off-world and Tony waved Bruce off assisting with the rescue mission since Bruce didn’t like bringing out the Hulk unless absolutely necessary, but the others were ready within fifteen minutes. Sharon, Coulson, and May all insisted on coming along as well, but Tony put his foot down. “I still don’t know if I can trust you, Walking Dead,” he told Coulson. “You and your partner in crime stay here. Avengers and Soulmates only.”

The tension was thick as they flew to the small island off Spain. It was there that they followed the GPS coordinates in the geotagged internet post JARVIS found to a cave on the coast. As they approached the cave, Steve spotted two people loading a small plane. One sped up his actions while the other reached for the radio. Clint loosed an arrow, knocking the radio out of the guard’s hand. The guard gave a shout as Natasha leapt on the guard loading the plane and used her Widow Bites to knock him out.

Two more guards appeared. Tony knocked one back with a repulsor while Steve threw his shield at the other, knocking them out. Clint dealt with the last guard while Steve, Sharon, and Natasha rushed down into the cave.

The cave was cold and wet, making Steve’s worry increase exponentially. “JARVIS, any hint of a broadband device being used from here?” Natasha asked. 

“None that I can tell,” JARVIS responded. “However, it is in a position of the cave where regular broadband signal could be sent and received without much interference.”

“No one on the plane,” Clint said, coming up behind them. “Tony’s tying everyone up so we can take them back for questioning.” They fanned out, continuing the search. 

“Steve!” Sharon cried in a strangled voice from another part of the cave. Immediately, Steve made a beeline for Sharon who collapsed into his arms as she watched Natasha kneeling over… Skye.

She was lying on on the stone floor, barely breathing, her eyes slightly open but clearly unfocused. She was dressed in the same clothes Coulson had reported she had been wearing when she had been taken, though they were now nearly shredded, damp, and dirty. Natasha was easily tearing them off to access Skye’s chest and get her out of the cold clothes. Sharon gasped at the bruises on Skye’s skin in addition to the young woman’s half-swollen face. “Clint, get the blanket and the stretcher,” Nat demanded worriedly. Clint came up beside Steve and pulled the warming blanket out of his backpack and started putting together a collapsible stretcher. Natasha immediately started securing Skye’s prone body to it, putting foam inserts snugly around everything. Once Sharon had righted herself, Steve grabbed the blanket out of his hands, then covered Skye with it. 

“Careful, Steve,” Clint warned. “We don’t know if she has a spinal cord injury.”

The moment Steve touched her though, Skye’s unfocused eyes opened and drifted towards Steve. “Trus’cap,” Skye mumbled. “Trus’cap.” 

“Hold on, Skye. You’ll be okay. Just hold on,” Steve pleaded desperately, not realizing that his last words to his best friend mimicked his words to his soulmate.

“Her pulse is pretty slow,” Nat said. “Hypothermia. We need to get her to the jet.”

“What? But she’s not shivering,” Steve said, trying to wrap her tighter in the heat-saving blanket. She barely responded, just winced a little.

“Happens with hypothermia when it gets bad,” Clint said.

Skye was still looking at Steve with unfocused eyes. “Side rah,” she whispered.

“Shh shh,” Sharon said, trying to ease Skye into quieting down.

They started rushing for the plane. Once they had her settled on the floor, Clint went to start the engines. Steve could see that Tony had loaded all four guards on the plane, but they were still knocked out. Steve pulled away so Tony could scan Skye and Natasha could start applying first aid, but Skye clung to him. “Side rah,” she said again, futilely trying to fight Sharon and Nat off, determination shining in her eyes. “Trus’cap… side rah. Goddaliss...”

“We know, Skye, we know,” Sharon cooed desperately from where she was kneeling at Skye’s head. 

“She’s not making any sense,” Steve said worriedly. 

She blinked slowly up at him, her eyes focusing for a moment. Somehow, finding coherence she tried to sit up, but stretcher’s ties held her down. She gave them all a look of terror and spoke clearly, “I don’t care what you do to me. I won’t talk.” Everyone in the cabin of the plane froze, stunned as Skye wavered and her eyes became unfocused once more.

“Did she just…” Sharon said softly, glancing between her soulmates.

“Trus’cap…” Skye said, losing her grip on reality once again. “S’HYDRA. Goddaliss.”

“It’s okay, Skye,” Steve said, stroking her hair. “You’ve held on long enough for you to tell us. Now let us take care of you?”

Skye’s unfocused gaze slid over to Sharon, then her eyelids slid shut. “Her internal temperature is 80ºF. I’ve texted Helen for her to be prepared for severe hypothermia,” Tony rambled. “She’s got three cracked ribs, a broken orbital bone,... possible concussion. She’s got a bad sprain to her wrist and her ankle’s shattered.  It’s possible that there’s some minor internal bleeding. It’s hard to tell since some of these bruises on her torso are pretty deep.”

Steve growled. “She looks like she’s gone twelve rounds with Mike Tyson,” Natasha said, focused on her task. “She’s taken a hell of a beating. The cold probably actually saved her life.”

“I should call Fury,” Sharon said distantly, but didn’t move from Steve and Skye’s side.

“I’ll do it,” Natasha volunteered after inserting an IV into Skye’s arm and starting the warmed saline they had brought with them. “You should stay with Skye.”

Steve refused to let go of Skye’s hand the entire flight back and Sharon didn’t want to leave her side either. Tony finally confirmed there was no spinal damage and Steve was allowed to curl up with his soulmate, skin on skin to warm her as quickly as possible. Skye whimpered occasionally and once sluggishly struggled against Steve’s hold as Sharon began to clean Skye of the grime that she’d been covered in. The team tried their best to busy them both with something to do on the hours-long flight home. Both Sharon and Steve were unspoken in their fear that Skye could easily become ill or her injuries could aggravate something or she could… they didn’t dare even think it. 

The four guards they had captured had woken up midway through the flight and all bitten down on a hollow tooth filled with cyanide at the same time before any of the Avengers could stop them. Without ID or distinguishing marks, none of them had any clue if it had been HYDRA who had taken Skye. 

As they neared New York, Skye began shivering violently, which caused Natasha to visibly relax for the first time since they found her. Natasha took Skye’s temperature and nodded.

“Temp’s up to 85*. It’s a good sign,” Natasha reassured them. “Her body’s trying to warm itself up.”

Steve and Sharon left the others to take care of the dead bodies in the plane while he and Sharon accompanied Skye into the medical wing where Skye was quickly warmed up the rest of the way and her injuries were quickly assessed. There was no internal bleeding, just a lot of bad bruising, broken ribs, the broken orbital bone, and Skye’s shattered ankle. Dr. Cho took one look at Skye’s x-rays and informed Steve and Sharon that Skye would need surgery to correct the ankle since the break was healing incorrectly.

Skye woke up just as she was being wheeled into surgery. She panicked when she heard a beeping coming from the heart rate monitor, fighting arms that held her down. She tried her best to get out of the bed she was in, but someone strong was stopping her from getting out, shouting her name. She struggled further, fighting her captor. People were shouting above her. It took a moment for Skye to recognize the bond she felt beneath her skin.

“Hold on, hold on!” Sharon shouted above the others.

“Shar?” Skye asked, the fight leaving her body and her voice shaking. It was muffled by a plastic mask that was over her mouth and nose. “S’eve.” Her hand weakly grabbed for them. Each of them grabbed her and held on tight.

“You’re safe, Skye,” Sharon said calmly, removing the mask for a moment. She continued stroking Skye’s hair. “You’re okay. You’re okay.”

Skye. “Safe?”

“You’re at the Tower,” Sharon said, allowing Skye to grip her hand. “You’re going to be okay.”

“Get the list,” Skye said wearily as she panted, her words slurred due to her still swollen face. “On our server.”

“What list?” Sharon asked her.

“Hacked th’HYDRA server. Got the members. Ward too...”

Sharon and Steve stared at her for a moment in wonder. “Our server,” Sharon said, realizing what Skye had done. What Skye had thought. “You transferred it to our server. Did you say  _ Ward _ ?” 

Skye nodded, tears falling down Skye’s face. “Wanted…” she struggled to find the words. “Love you… both…”

Sharon gasped, her cheeks wet with her own tears. “We love you too,” Sharon said, her voice breaking.

“Love you,” Steve said thickly. “So much.”

They fell into silence. “I-I do okay?” Skye asked, exhaustion heavy in her voice.

Sharon cupped Skye’s cheek. “You did so good, Skye,” Sharon said tearfully. “I’m so thankful that you’re alive. You scared the hell out of us,” Sharon said softly, running a hand through Skye’s hair with her own hand. “We were so worried.”

“Sharon,” Helen said warningly.

“Right,” Sharon said. “Skye, you’re going into surgery. We’ll be right here when you get out.”

Panic flooded Skye’s body and Steve grabbed onto her shoulder to give her an extra anchor. “Could we come back? Just until she’s out again?” he asked.

“Only one of you,” Helen said. Sharon, seeing the look on Steve’s face, let go.

“You’ll be okay Skye,” Sharon said, cupping her face and kissing her forehead while she replaced the mask. Someone must have put medication in Skye’s IV, because things got really fuzzy after that. She could still feel Steve, so she held onto him until her oxygen mask was replaced by another mask and the entire world went dark.

\---------

Steve returned to the common area once Skye was out and Cho forced him back to the waiting room. He sat with Sharon on one end of the couch while May and Coulson sat on the other. The other Avengers stood or sat around them.

“How…” Coulson said, his voice breaking. “How is she?”

Steve looked at May and Coulson and saw they had the same look in their eyes that his mother did when he had to go to the hospital. “She’s critical, but stable,” Natasha said when it was clear neither Steve nor Sharon could speak. “She’s in surgery now. The hypothermia is the most grave of her injuries so far.”

“She was so cold when we found her,” Steve said quietly. “She wasn’t even shivering.”

“We should all be thankful that Steve got that alert when he did,” Clint agreed, nodding. “Her internal core temp… you should know it was at 80º....” 

Coulson and May both sucked in their breath. A body couldn’t last long below 82º. Organs started shutting down and death was likely to occur if intervention didn’t happen quickly. “This is my fault,” Coulson said. “I dragged her into all of this.”

May worried her lip, but remained quiet. Natasha sat next to her old friend. “You should be proud of her,” Natasha said. “She somehow got the membership list for most of HYDRA within SHIELD. We’ve sent what we know off to Fury and are working on a plan to take everyone down. We also identified several of HYDRA’s leaders because of her intel.”

Steve saw May’s eyes wet with tears. “I should have convinced Fury to get her off the Bus, especially after Christmas,” May said thickly.

“There’s one more piece of information that Skye found out,” Clint said cautiously. “Grant Ward is HYDRA.”

Coulson and May both stiffened and stared, wide-eyed at Clint.

“What?” Coulson said, his tone growing dangerous.

“Skye said his name,” Clint said. “JARVIS? Do you have any information on Grant Ward from the HYDRA files Skye gave us?”

“Indeed,” JARVIS said. “It appears Grant Ward was unofficially recruited by John Garrett, a member of HYDRA, before Agent Garrett officially recruited him into SHIELD.”

May went very quiet. “I’m going to kill him,” she finally said.

“We can’t,” Clint said and Steve grunted in an objection. “HYDRA doesn’t know that Skye took the information. For all we know, HYDRA might think she’s dead if we play it right.”

Sharon had gone stiff at the news from JARVIS. “JARVIS… what about Agent Antoine Triplett?” she asked cautiously.

“I have no record of him within the files taken by Skyenet,” JARVIS answered.

Everyone looked at her curiously. “He’s my cousin,” Sharon said worriedly. “The grandson of Gabe Jones. And Garrett’s current Rookie.”

“Is there any chance… is Trip in trouble?” Steve asked. They had talked about Trip before, though Steve had never met him.

Sharon frowned. “No more than the rest of us, given how highly integrated HYDRA seems. If they took us by surprise and we didn’t have this intel, it could have been bad. Now we can at least identify them.”

“If we play it that we recovered Skye’s body...,” Clint started. Steve and Sharon both flinched. “Fury would come to the tower for investigation and it would explain why Steve and Sharon are on leave without causing HYDRA to be suspicious that we know anything.”

“As much as I hate to think about it,” Steve said. “It’s our best tactical option.”

“I’m going to go check on the team,” May said, clearly in a rush for solitude. “Coulson, you should keep your cover and wait for Fury.” No one said a word after May all but ran out of the door, all in their own thoughts about the developments of the day.

\---------

Skye didn’t blink awake from sedation after surgery like most people. One second she was asleep and the next she was wide-eyed, her head turning and looking at her surroundings in panic.

“Skye, Skye, you’re okay. You’re safe,” Sharon’s voice came as her face came into view.  Skye panted as her panic reduced.

“Where am I?” Skye asked, surprised at her muffled voice. She noticed her mouth and nose were covered by a mask and her left ankle was a lot heavier than she was used to.

“Avenger Tower,” Sharon said, not moving to remove the mask. “We brought you here after we found you.”

Skye coughed wetly. “How… how long was I… how long did they... ?” she tried to ask.

“You’ve been missing for three weeks,” Sharon said, her eyes welling up with tears. “Steve and I were so scared for you. He’s been beside himself. He’s getting you breakfast right now, just in case you woke up.” 

Skye’s stomach churned at the thought and started to panic. “I’m fine. I just need to get out of here,” she said in lieu of answering. She sat up, wincing, and swung her legs to the side of the bed, then stood up. She pitched forward, feeling pain everywhere and thrown off balance by her ankle being in some sort of thick and heavy wrap. Thankfully, Sharon was close by and caught her. “No… don’t… I don’t wanna be here,” she whined softly. “I wanna get out.”

“You’re okay, Skye,” Sharon said, trying to reassure her. “You’re safe. We’ve got you.”

“Please stay,” came Steve’s voice. “You just had surgery. You’re still recovering and we want to make sure that you’re okay.” Skye tried not to look at the male adonis that had just entered the room with a tray of various cups. She knew if she really looked at Steve, she might dissolve into tears. Skye saw one cup was jello, another was yogurt, there were three others and an Ensure on the tray. 

Skye felt the fight leave her and Sharon helped her back into bed. HYDRA had only given her a bowl of cold oatmeal twice during her captivity, though she had water pretty consistently. She knew the lack of food was part of the reason why she felt so tired. “You hungry?” Steve asked.

“Tired,” Skye said, shocked at how few moves had wiped her out. Sharon helped her to sit up, sitting behind Skye on the bed so that Skye was leaning against her. Skye leaned her head against Sharon, letting Sharon take all of her weight. She felt a bit like a rag doll. 

“Can you eat something before taking a nap?” Steve asked, giving her a puppy dog face. “I’ve got cherry yogurt, lemon JELL-O, rice and chocolate pudding…”

Steve put the tray down on the table near Skye and she watched nervously as her arm shook as she tried to take the spoon and put it in the JELL-O cup, unsure if she could stomach anything at all. Steve gently took the spoon from Skye and loaded the spoon. “Do you mind?” he asked.

Skye should have been embarrassed, but between Sharon and Steve buffering her, she was okay. “Soulmates…” Skye said.

She let Steve feed her three bites of the JELL-O cup before she grew too tired and drifted off mid-bite. Once Skye’s eyes closed and didn’t open again, they got her to swallow what was in her mouth so she didn’t choke and Steve put the remainder of the cups in the mini fridge in the room as Sharon laid Skye down to a better sleeping position, replacing the mask.

Skye woke up up screaming an hour later, Steve sitting next to her on her bed facing her and holding her tightly. “It’s okay, Skye. It’s okay,” Steve murmured. “You’re safe now. We’ve got you. Don’t worry. We’ve got you.” Her screams dissolved into sobs and Steve rocked her gently, cautious of her ribs.

“They wanted to kill me,” Skye whimpered once the sobs had subsided. “He wouldn’t let them.” Steve opened his mouth to question Skye, but Sharon stopped him. “Told me he was undercover with SHIELD. Kept them from…” she trailed off, looking haunted.

“Do you know his name?” Sharon said gently.

Skye looked at Steve, fatigue returning to her face. “Brock.”

“Rumlow?” Steve said in shock. 

“So that’s how Fury knew about HYDRA,” Sharon said softly. “We owe him.”

“We could have asked Rumlow and found you sooner?” Steve asked, looking a bit lost.

“He must have had a reason he didn’t pass the information along,” Sharon said.

Skye was already sleepy again, but she nodded. “Wanted… wanted to get me out’f there. Had to… wanted to use me… leverage… couldn’t… n’t … Pierce...”

Sharon’s and Steve’s eyes both went wide. “ _ Pierce _ ? Pierce is HYDRA?” Steve asked. They really needed to review the intel that Skye had sent them. Fury was currently meeting with Clint, Natasha, and Coulson about it, if the clock was right.

“Head of HYDRA… could contr’l you with me,” Skye murmured, then coughed weakly. 

Steve was mindful he was holding his soulmate, but his grip on Skye got tighter. “Skye, can you identify anyone else?” Sharon asked. 

“Quinn’s dead,” Skye whimpered equal parts sleepily and terror-stricken. “...bled out on the floor... next to me… Whitehall… Bakshi… Ward... ” Sharon glanced at Steve as Skye’s eyes drooped became less and less coherent.

“Shhh,” Sharon said, turning off the light above Skye’s bed. “You did good. Now rest.” Steve felt Skye’s forehead and frowned when he noticed she was warm.

Skye cracked open her eyes then weakly tugged Steve toward the space on the bed that was barely big enough for him to squeeze into, but he knew he could not deny his soulmate, so he got into bed next to her.

Steve wordlessly stared at Skye until she burrowed into him. “Mmm… warm,” she said, snuggling into the crook of his elbow. Steve froze for a minute then relaxed as he caressed her, letting the bond sing. Sharon came up on the bed and snuggled the two of them so that Skye was sandwiched between her soulmates. 

Skye eventually fell asleep again. “I'll go tell Fury about the update,” Sharon said. “Just in case Pierce’s name wasn’t included in the data.”

“Let May know about…” Steve said quietly, glancing down. 

Sharon nodded grimly. One thing Steve was sure of - they weren't going to let anyone touch Skye ever again. Steve was tempted to ask Thor if Skye could be sequestered on Asgard while they dealt with HYDRA. Tired from weeks of searching for Skye and barely sleeping himself, Steve fell asleep too, Skye in his arms.

\---------

When Skye awoke again, she was vaguely aware that she was  _ roasting _ . In addition to the heat, the plastic mask covering her face was pushing gas in her face and even so she found it rather difficult to breathe. Skye moved to take the mask off of her face but Steve stopped her.

“Keep it on,” Steve requested quietly as his face appeared in her field of vision. He looked tired. Skye made a discontented noise, then coughed. Suddenly, she couldn’t stop. She was gasping for breath. Steve forced her up as her chest burned and her ribs protested. Eventually, the coughing fit settled and Steve settled her back down. “Keep it on and I’ll update you on what’s been going on with HYDRA and with you.”

Skye stopped and tried to sit up again. Steve stopped her again, but showed her a button on the side of the bed that she could use to sit herself up. Steve handed her a dry erase board and a marker. “You’re on strict orders not to talk for at least two days. You developed laryngitis, bronchitis, and pneumonia from being in that cave and you’re not supposed to strain your respiratory system.” Skye made a displeased face. Steve’s face looked near distraught though, so she must be as bad as she felt.

“Fury has a team of trusted agents working around the clock to make your intel actionable. JARVIS is putting together probability models of who is HYDRA and who isn’t. Apparently some Senator that Tony hates is HYDRA and he’s got his ‘I told you so’ face on permanently. There’s a lot of data now linked to the lower level agents, but we’re still trying to nail down that Pierce has been involved,” Steve started. “We’ve got eyes on higher level agents that we know are HYDRA, but we’re waiting for someone to slip up at this point.”

Skye tugged at the mask, but Steve stayed her hand. “The mask is providing oxygen and medication to your lungs to help heal them directly,” he said softly.

Skye looked at Steve curiously then her eyes went wide. ‘Team?’ she wrote on her whiteboard.

“Coulson and May are right outside,” Steve said. “We figured that with the intel we should be restrictive about who enters the tower. It’s fairly well known what Coulson did for the Avengers and May’s an old friend of Natasha’s so it won’t create any alarms with Ward.”

Skye stiffened. She didn’t really want to see Ward. Not if it looked like he was HYDRA. But not having any of the team in her to see her might be suspicious. ‘No Ward,’ she wrote.

“He’s not here, Skye,” Steve said. “You don’t have to go near him ever again. Do you want to see May and Coulson?”

When she nodded, Steve walked out for a moment then returned leading May and Coulson. They were both wearing hospital masks that partially obscured their faces. 

“How are you feeling Skye?” Coulson asked, his voice full of concern. Skye couldn’t hold back the tears she felt well up at the obvious concern coming from Coulson and May. Not for the first time did she wonder if they saw her in the same way she saw them. She would be lucky to have parents like them. She actually had wished that they  _ were _ her parents for a long time. 

‘Fine,’ Skye wrote on her board and showed them. Overcome with a combination of emotion and medication that left her feeling loopy, Skye started crying and didn’t know how to stop. She didn’t even have the energy to hide her tears like she normally did. Steve seemed to know exactly what Skye needed and moved out of the way just enough to silently invite them closer to Skye’s bed. 

May and Coulson immediately moved to either side of Skye’s bed and embraced her gently, cautious of her wounds.

“We were so worried,” Coulson said thickly. Skye thought she felt moisture on the top of her head, but thought she was imagining things until Coulson pulled away and she saw that he was crying too. “After Italy… we’ve been worried sick. They wouldn’t let us see you when you first got here. “You were so sick only Steve and Sharon were allowed in. They said that you only really woke up once, but were in and out…”

“You scared the hell out of both of us,” May said. “You are so grounded.” Skye was fairly sure May wasn’t being serious, but her heart tugged at her anyway. Skye reached for her mask and May stopped her with a worried look. She vaguely wondered how long she’d been at the Tower and what had happened. “You better not talk,” May said, her voice full of emotion. “I’m still your SO and I’ll kick your ass if you do.” 

Skye clung to them for a moment, then nodded. She was admittedly a little insecure about the entire thing. How much did the rest of the team know? Did they know she had lied to them again?

“Skye,” May asked, sitting down next to her. 

‘Lied again,’ she wrote, looking mournfully at May.

“You lied?” May repeated, clearly not following the train of thought.

‘Soulmates,’ Skye wrote.

“You didn’t lie,” May responded. “It’s classified level 10. You kept a secret. You never lied.”

“If FitzSimmons can’t see it that way, then they weren’t really your friends,” Coulson said quietly. 

After about ten minutes Skye’s energy flagged, to her frustration. “Maybe we should come back another time,” Coulson said hesitantly as Skye’s eyes slid shut for the fourth time.

Skye nodded, then shut her eyes, the pull of sleep too strong to ignore. She heard people talking in low tones, then movement around her, as she fell asleep. 

Morning led to her first argument with Steve. She wanted out of bed and Steve seemed insistent on coddling her.

‘I will,’ had been written on her dry erase board and she just pointed to it over and over. 

“You can’t yet, Skye,” Steve said evenly. “You’re still healing. You haven’t gone an hour without needing a nap yet and you’re still on soft foods.”

She was still on oxygen but she wasn’t coughing as much and she was well enough to feel the familiar itch she always felt when she was in a medical facility. She managed to get out of bed again and nearly face-planted when her ankle screamed in protest.

“Skye!” Steve exclaimed rushing over and picking her up to put her back in bed. “Like I was saying, Doctor Cho is going to be in here in a minute and she’s going to explain what’s going on and what kind of healing timeline you’re on.”

Sharon entered the room and grabbed a chair on the opposite side of Skye’s bed. “She still being difficult?” Sharon asked Steve. 

Skye opened her mouth to protest and Steve instantly covered it.

“Bullheaded is more like it,” Steve grumbled. “She tried to get out of bed.” 

“Like you aren’t stubborn?” Sharon postured with a grin. Steve finally removed his hand. “Come on, Skye. After Doctor Cho tells us what’s going on, maybe you’d like a shower?”

Skye perked up at that. She hadn’t been properly washed since before she had been kidnapped by Quinn. She sat up and paid attention while Dr. Cho detailed out her minor injuries, the internal damage including a very small laceration on her liver that would take time to heal, and then finally the timeline for her surgery recovery. After everyone left, Skye fought off sleep while Steve disconnected her from almost everything except for her IV. Dr. Cho agreed to try Skye off oxygen during her shower, but showed them where an oxygen line was available in the bathroom in case.

Once they had some privacy, Steve smiled gently at Skye as he stripped down. “Ready?” Steve said. Skye nodded enthusiastically and moved to get out of bed, looking around for crutches. She figured Steve would help support her, but she’d at least get to stand up by herself. “I’ve got you,” Steve said, picking her up. Skye had been naked and intimate with Steve and Sharon on several occasions, but this brought things to a different level. This was a relationship-related intimacy that Skye had never experienced before. The way Steve was looking at her… no one had ever looked at her like that before in her life.

Skye found that she couldn’t even hold herself up for longer than a minute, so Steve held her while Sharon washed her, all three of them completely naked. Skye was a little fascinated at all of her stitches around her ankle at first, but lost interest. Despite the fact that she was feeling better, Skye found herself drifting off after being awake only an hour as the warm water washed over her. 

“Rest Skye,” Steve said as they started rinsing Skye off. Skye fell asleep surrounded by warmth and love.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Once more, all the thanks to my beta

Days passed. Skye continued to push against everyone regarding what she was and wasn’t allowed to do. Her oxygen support was slowly lowered and her need for sleep lessened as she healed and returned to eating on a regular basis. She finally felt like she had achieved something when, three days later, Dr. Cho announced that she would be taken off oxygen that night. She was still on IVs because she wasn’t eating a complete meal and her weight had dropped dangerously, but progress was progress. 

After dinner, which was most of a plate of yogurt and eggs, Skye learned that she wouldn’t be allowed to walk on her own for at least a week.

She awoke again feeling much better, but was shocked when she looked around and saw her room was empty. Not feeling the need for her oxygen, she took it off, then turned the nozzle supplying the oxygen to ‘off’. She then disconnected her IV line. Free of wires and tubes, Skye stepped outside her door and found the hallway deserted too. 

Confused, she went to the elevator. It opened and she saw there were no buttons on it. She had heard Steve talk about JARVIS, so she looked up at the ceiling. “Uh, could you take me to Steve, please?”

There was no response, but the elevator moved, so Skye assumed it had heard. 

“Steve?” Skye called. She spotted him making a pastrami sandwich and she raced over.

“What are you doing?” came a voice from Steve’s mouth, but it wasn’t Steve’s voice. He sounded older. And there was a dangerous edge to it.

“She can help us win the war. If we have her, Rogers won’t do anything about Insight,” came another voice. A male’s. Coulson’s. Coulson appeared next to her and grabbed her arms. Skye shrieked and struggled against him, but he was too strong.

“It’s too early,” Dream Steve said, frowning.

“So give her to Whitehall or Bakshi and let them play with her,” Coulson said.

“Yes,” Dream Steve agreed. “But which one? Bakshi could make her into a good soldier but Whitehall has gotten some very interesting results.”

She was suddenly strapped to something that forced her to stand and watch something. They looked like memories of her childhood. “Take a deep breath,” she heard. “Calm your mind.”

Another voice cut in. “ _ ResistResistRESIST. _ ”

Skye blinked and suddenly she was lying down, strapped to a cold metal table. “What makes you special, I wonder,” a gray-haired man pondered, leaning over her. “They say even when beaten you refuse to talk. And what’s more, all records indicate that you never existed before you were dropped off in an orphanage as a baby.” Skye struggled against the bonds holding her down. The gray-haired man traced his thumb from her forehead to her ear. “I met someone like you, once. Just around the time you arrived at the orphanage, in fact. Same region you were found in. A woman who could touch an object that destroyed ordinary men. I wonder if you are the same.”

“Skye!” Someone was shouting. She tried to look over to where the voice was coming from but Whitehall forced her head upwards. “Skye!” The voice came again.

Hands were grabbing hers and someone else was slapping her cheek very gently. Skye blinked and the cave disappeared. She was back in her hospital room, Steve and Sharon standing over her. Instinctively, she sat up and curled into herself, making no noise and staring straight forward.

“Skye?” Sharon asked quietly. “Skye, you don’t have to talk about it, but I need you to respond.”

“I dreamed…” Skye said distantly. “I…” Skye took two deep breaths then forced herself to reach out and grab each of her soulmates’ hands. She squeezed as hard as she could to ground herself to the present, then started speaking. Her voice was still hoarse and her chest still wheezed, but she needed to tell them. “Quinn took me… he took me to this office building. I don’t know where or when because they knocked me out before and after, but there was a man there. He didn’t introduce himself but I heard… I heard Quinn arguing with him. He called him Pierce. Said that he was funding Centipede but could do more. That he could help fund HYDRA.” 

Both her soulmates waited for her to catch her breath and continue. “He said that I was a gift to HYDRA. A show of good faith. He… they knew that I was your soulmate. They wanted to use it against you when the Insight carriers launched, so you couldn’t stop whatever they were planning to prevent me from getting hurt. Pierce said it was too early. So they were going to turn me over to Daniel Whitehall or some guy named Bakshi. I… think Bakshi wanted to… turn me into some kind of mindless HYDRA drone…” Steve grabbed her and hugged her fiercely. It was a long while before Steve was calm enough that Skye felt like she could continue without him hurting himself. “They put me in this machine… I don’t think it worked. I think… without the bond they would have, but they couldn’t… it hurt so bad…” Skye said, remembering the white-hot pain. “After… after a few days they realized it wasn’t working… That’s when they put me in the cave and I met… I met Whitehall.” Skye went pale and felt herself shaking in fear.

“Skye, you don’t have to relive all this at once,” Sharon said softly.

“Yes I do,” Skye said. “I do, because it’s important. “I think… I think he killed my mother.” Her voice quaked at the memory. “He told me… he told me that he found a woman at the same time and place that I’d been found by SHIELD… He kept… he’d take samples of blood and stuff and he’d put me…” she could say no more and burst into tears. She couldn’t explain that her mind had mixed up Steve and Coulson with Pierce and Quinn. Steve rocked her, trying to comfort her through the bond despite all the anguish and rage he was feeling. Sharon wasn’t much better. 

“JARVIS, if Dr. Cho asks, tell her that we went to our room,” Sharon said.

It was only then that Skye noticed that she was off of the oxygen line, but the pulse oximeter was still on her finger. She watched it flip back and forth between 94 and 95 for a minute, then watched Sharon grab her IV pole as Steve picked up Skye. “I can walk, you know,” Skye said dryly as Sharon and Steve also wrapped Skye in a blanket that had been thrown across a chair. She didn’t say anything, but she admitted to herself she’d been pretty cold.

“I’m aware,” Steve said. “Just let us take care of you. It helps remind me that you’re here.”

For the first time, Skye realized that she must not be the only one with nightmares from the ordeal. “What… what happened… while I was… gone?” Skye asked softly.

Steve grimaced. Skye leaned her head on Steve’s shoulder. Steve carried her into the elevator and the doors closed. “It… we knew you were in pain,” Steve said, his voice breaking. Skye turned her head and caught a glimpse of Sharon whose eyes were tearful. It was a short elevator ride to their floor. She’d seen it before in pictures and in video that Sharon and Steve had posted to their server, but it was still amazing to see in person.

Skye didn’t feel the least bit tired, so was disappointed when Steve took her straight to the bedroom and carefully put her in her side of the middle of the bed. “I’m not tired,” Skye said, trying to hide the nervousness in her voice. She didn’t want another nightmare like the one before. 

“Can you try?” Sharon asked on one side of her.

“I don’t… Skye said softly. “I don’t want to have that nightmare again.”

Steve immediately grabbed a remote and pressed a button. A big screen TV came out of the foot of the bed. “What do you want to watch,” Steve said.

“Something we’ve all seen?” Skye suggested. “Like Snow White or Fantasia?”

“Sounds good,” Sharon said. “Tony’s got every Disney movie ever on the network.”

Subconsciously, her soulmates snuggled closer to her. Between that, the darkness, and the sound, Skye very slowly drifted off.

The next thing, Skye knew, it was morning. Steve’s side of the bed was empty, but Sharon was sitting up and reading. Someone was clattering plates together and something smelled like bacon. Sharon almost immediately noticed that Skye was awake. 

“Good morning, beautiful,” Sharon said, putting her book down. “We were hoping that you were going to sleep longer. Do you want to?”

Skye shook her head. She had had another nightmare about… something. She wasn’t quite sure. She remembered being scared, and had vague memories of the cave and being chased, but her soulmates had been there and she wasn’t so afraid. “What time is it?” she asked. She was surprised that her voice was no longer hoarse.

“Just after nine. Dr. Cho has cleared you for solid foods as long as you take it easy and stop if you’re full. You’re still on bed rest for a week, but if you can keep breakfast down, she says you don’t need the IV any more. Steve’s making French Toast.”

Skye sat up excitedly. “I love French Toast,” she said.

“So do I,” Sharon said with a warm smile.

“Does that mean I’d get a real shower? I mean, not with Steve holding me?” Skye asked eagerly.

Sharon frowned. “Let’s talk to Dr. Cho first. I think we’d want to see if you can safely stand without falling over. For one thing, you’ve still got the upper respiratory infections. You’re just on some powerful steroids and antibiotics that probably make you feel better than you are. For another, Cho said you likely didn’t eat much while being held captive.” 

Skye looked away from Sharon. “They didn’t feed me really,” Skye said. “Said I wasn’t worth it.”

“Good Morning, Skye,” Steve said, coming in with a tray piled high with French Toast. “JARVIS says you’re interested in another shower today?”

Skye nodded. “And maybe go for a walk later?”

“Only if Dr. Cho says it’s okay,” Steve agreed, setting the tray on the bed and sitting next to Skye.

She noticed that her plate was already loaded with about two slices of toast, but they’d been cut up already. Skye grabbed her fork and started eating, famished if a bit shaky. She normally could bolt down the two slices and eat a serving or two more, but now her eating was painstakingly slow. She managed to eat about three-quarters of her plate when she could eat no more. Once she had finished, Steve cleared away her dishes. 

Sharon produced a laptop from somewhere, making Skye’s eyes light up. 

Sharon smiled. “I figured you’d want to be in on what we’re planning for HYDRA, even if you won’t be able to be with us.”

Skye instantly opened the laptop and powered it on. “Thanks,” she said sincerely. “I…”

“I know,” Sharon said quietly. “Don’t worry. We’re not about to leave you out. If you weren’t on bed rest, you’d be coming along, but this is the next best thing. JARVIS will be monitoring you and Pepper and Happy will be here just in case.”

“I want to face him,” Skye said softly, idly scanning the SHIELD files of upper-level agents who had HYDRA ties.

“Pierce?” Sharon asked.

Skye nodded. “I want… I want him to know that I’m going to survive this. I want to prove… that he can’t beat me.”

Steve hugged Skye tightly. “Whatever you want. We’ll figure something out. All I ask is that we make sure you’re safe.”

Skye could see on Steve’s face how terrified he was, so she nodded. 

Cho approved that Skye could take a walk as long as she stayed off her ankle, so after helping Skye take another shower, Skye was allowed to try a few steps on the crutches. She hadn’t been able to maintain momentum and found herself once more being carried to the common floor where lunch was waiting for her. 

She was a little intimidated to be in front of the Avengers, but she soon got over it in favor of the smell of food. Steve quickly brought over a plate of mac and cheese, creamed spinach, and a cookie. Skye had never tasted a better meal. Steve and Sharon flanked her with their own meals while the others sat around them, talking about the upcoming mission.

“As long as Cho agrees that she’ll be up for it, Skye will be running back end,” Steve noted, “Skye can hack their systems. Since, thanks to Skye, we can identify who is HYDRA, Fury’s quietly moving SHIELD agents to be poised to arrest the HYDRA agents as efficiently as possible, but he needs help making sure there’s not going to be an issue at the Triskellion, The Fridge, or the Sandbox. I figured Nat and I would take the Triskellion.”

“I’ll help out at the Fridge,” Clint volunteered. 

“I’ll come with you, “ Bruce said. “As much as I dislike being underground, you can knock me out with one of your Hulk-buster arrows if you need to.”

“That leaves me and Point-Break for the Sandbox,” Tony said. “Sounds like a party.”

“I can start to work on a program to coordinate clocks. When are people being informed?”

“Well, the SHIELD Academies are being shut down for for their annual maintenance next weekend,” Clint noted. “They wax the floors, spray for bugs, etc. every year. They give the students a four day weekend and they all either go home or go to a friend’s home. The older ones sometimes go to hotels.”

“Do it while they’re gone?” Skye asked.

“That’s what I’m thinking,” Clint said. “HYDRA might be able to take a few of the bases, which is why Fury wants us at the bases that could cause a situation if HYDRA actually took one of them.”

“Do you think it’s possible to shut down communications since we know the members of HYDRA?” Natasha asked. “I mean, lock their accounts and their keycards?”

Skye nodded, shifting slightly to get more comfortable. “I might have a program that does that.”

Sharon looked at her curiously. “Do I want to know?”

Skye shrugged. “I used to do it to an old friend of mine,” she said. “I’d lock him out of his dorm room in college. I mean, I haven’t used it since I was sixteen and it’s written for Columbia’s security system, but I can adapt it pretty easily to SHIELD.”

“Any clues to who this ‘Whitehall’ is?” Sharon asked Steve. 

“Well, we definitely found Bakshi,” Clint said. “We have an electronic tail on him and Fury has a team tasked with picking him up once things start going down. The issue is that we can’t nail down Whitehall, but we have a few possibilities.” He turned to Skye. “Do you think you’d be up to checking out some photos?”

Sharon squeezed her hand and Skye nodded stoically. “JARVIS?” Tony prompted.

JARVIS projected a series of faces on the wall. Skye froze when she saw his face. “There,” she said, going white. 

Steve froze as well. “That’s not Whitehall…” he said slowly. “That’s Werner Reinhardt. He was one of the Red Skull’s commanders during World War II.”

All the Avengers looked at Steve sharply while Sharon was comforting Skye, who was looking rather haunted, but determined. It took a moment for Steve for him to register Skye’s distress through the bond. “JARVIS, take it down,” he said.

“It has to be a relative of Reinhardt,” Tony said. “Maybe a grandson or a great-nephew?”

Steve shook his head. “If I remember correctly, Reinhardt was an only child and had no kids.”

“Capsicle, what you’re suggesting… it just isn’t possible,” Tony snarked. “This isn’t like you. You’re suggesting that this guy lived for the last seventy years. What he do, find a fountain of youth?”

Skye took two deep breaths and recentered herself while the others debated who Whitehall was and Sharon and Steve bolstered her. She reminded herself that HYDRA wouldn’t get into the tower - especially not with the Avengers there. “Maybe I should take Skye back to our room for a nap?” Sharon suggested.

“I’m fine,” Skye said, trying not to admit to herself that she  _ was _ a bit tired.

“That’s a good idea,” Steve said. “We can fill you in on the plan when you wake up and we can talk more about this over dinner,” Steve said, picking Skye up.

Knowing it was pointless to argue and finally admitting to herself that a nap sounded wonderful, Skye allowed Steve to carry her. Once she was placed in bed, her fears of her nightmares returned. “I’ll stay with her,” Sharon volunteered. “Go back to the meeting.”

Steve nodded then leaned over and gently kissed Skye. “Sleep well,” he said softly. Skye hummed, feeling both content and upset at the promise of a nap.

Once Steve was gone, Sharon flipped on the TV. “So… want to watch Arrow?” she asked curiously.

Skye nodded eagerly and soon found herself falling asleep to the sound of Oliver Queen kicking the crap out of his enemies. When she woke up again, Sharon was still next to her and Steve had joined them. Realizing she desperately needed to pee, she started to get out of bed, but Steve rushed forward to help her. 

“I can do it myself,” Skye snapped without meaning to. She immediately shrank back. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that.”

“We understand you feel frustrated, Skye,” Sharon said, scooching up behind her. “All three of us are pretty independent. We know it sucks to have to depend on others.”

“Do you mind if I take you to the bathroom?” Steve asked Skye patiently. Skye hesitated, then nodded. 

What was especially surprising to everyone was when Maria Hill came by to take Skye’s statement that evening. Skye detailed what little she remembered of Quinn drugging her and bringing her to Pierce. She described as best as she could what Pierce looked like and from Steve’s drawing, it was a visual match of the head of the WSO.

What came next was her description of Bakshi and what little she remembered of her time with him. It was mostly snippets, and Steve and Sharon both exchanged a glance, grateful that Skye barely remembered the pain that was so bad Sharon couldn’t get out of bed as she felt it through the bond. Steve had had to carry her to the meeting at the Triskellion.

“When I woke up again coherently, I was in the cave, and Whitehall was there,” Skye said softly, doing her best to maintain her poker face and not curl into Steve’s side like she wanted to. Steve slipped his hand in hers, providing enough support for her to continue. “They had different truth serums and questioned me about SHIELD and my soulmates.”

“What did you tell them?” Maria asked impartially.

“Nothing,” Skye said.

Maria stiffened, her eyes furrowed questioningly. “Nothing? How is that possible? You were able to beat it?”

Skye gave a dry laugh. “God no,” Skye said, furiously shaking her head and getting light-headed. She stopped and took a breath. “The flaw with truth serum though is that it compels you to tell the truth. It doesn’t compel you to answer their questions. So instead of telling them what they wanted to hear I just started rambling about why I felt that Star Trek DS9 was the best Star Trek series on earth. You can’t hear someone ask you a question if you talk loud enough, so I just kept talking. It  _ really _ pissed them off, and they probably beat me more because of that, but Pierce… Pierce wanted to use me against Steve once HYDRA came out of hiding, so they couldn’t kill me... The last time they questioned me, they had knocked me out and left me next to the laptop they used to take notes and communicate with Pierce, so I took the opportunity to hack them and grab the membership list I sent Steve and Sharon.”

Maria looked at her incredulously. “You managed to withstand interrogation? After just a few weeks of training with May?” she asked, clearly not buying the story.

Skye shrugged. “I’ve kind of been training to withstand interrogations my whole life,” Skye said. “I’ve been in homes where being able to manipulate people was the only way I got to eat that day.”

“She also nearly died in the process, don’t forget,” Clint said. “Most Agents are never put in the situation.”

“To be honest, if I thought they would have spared me, I would have talked,” Skye admitted quietly. “They were going to kill me either way, I was just trying to prolong… I was trying...” Skye found she couldn’t continue, remembering how it had felt to know she was going to die without seeing her soulmates again.

Steve pulled Skye into his lap from where he sat next to her, tightly holding onto him as his jaw clenched. “As much as we’d all like to watch Steve explode,” Tony said. “I think we can all agree that Skyenet here did the best she could with the situation she was in.”

“Agreed,” Maria said, nodding. “I apologize. It was a question that had to be asked.”

“I understand,” Skye said gently.

“I don’t,” Steve practically growled. “What did you think my soulmate is made of, Hill?”

“She  _ did _ steal SHIELD secrets for the Rising Tide before all this,” Maria noted. “Most of them are..”

“Cowards,” Skye said, thinking of Miles.

\--------

Skye was allowed on her first walk in a walking cast and crutches later that week, just before the mission was to take place. She was surprised at how little weight her ankle seemed to be able to take. One of the medical officers was a physical therapist and she was assigned an hour of therapy three times a week. It was a painful process, getting her ambulatory again. Even with the therapy, she was still on bed rest, so by the time the eve of the mission came, Skye was feeling a little cooped up and a lot left out.

Sharon seemed to understand her frustration better than Steve. “It’s not forever,” she noted. “Six to twelve weeks in the walking cast. Six months to a year before you can go out in the field again. If you want to, that is.”

Skye shuddered, thinking about her now-mixed emotions about the Bus. “I’ll think about it,” she said.

“Ward was secretly taken into custody tonight,” Steve said softly. “May reports that he put up a bit of a fight and denied any HYDRA allegiance until May hit the right buttons and he let something slip that confirmed he’s a part of the group.”

Sharon and Skye both sat up, looking at how dark Steve’s face was. “What did he say?” Skye asked fearlessly.

“They knew whose soulmates you were but didn’t know you’d bonded,” Steve said, clearly deeply disturbed. “Apparently HYDRA had promised you to Ward after they were done using you to get to me.”

Skye’s nostrils flared as she growled her objection. “Promise me you’ll let me kick his ass when I’m well enough to?”

“Only if you let us help,” Sharon said. “For now, we just have to make sure that everyone associated with HYDRA is captured tomorrow.”

“JARVIS will lock this place down if someone so much as looks at the tower wrong. Plus, Pepper and Happy will be here.”

“Do I really have to stay in bed?” Skye asked.

“It would make us happy if you were,” Sharon said. “It would give us peace of mind.”

Skye nodded. “I’ll do my best then,” she said.

The next morning started unintentionally early for everyone. Skye woke up at three from a dream where Steve and Sharon had been killed by HYDRA and Whitehall and Ward were chasing after her screaming ‘discovery requires experimentation.’

Skye had been willing to go back to sleep after she described her nightmare to Sharon and Steve, but they hadn’t, wanting to hold her and reassure her that nothing was going to happen to them. To keep herself busy, Skye hacked the HYDRA communication back channels she had found to confirm that Pierce and the others were none the wiser.

She  _ was  _ a little disturbed to see Pierce, Whitehall, and Bakshi were discussing how much Skye might know from her time in captivity. Bakshi was stipulating the brainwashing process wiped most of her memories from that time, and Whitehall noted that Skye was probably too traumatized to remember anything but snippets. Pierce seemed to be reassured by the fact that it had been a week and hot-headed Captain America had not visited him. 

All too soon, the Avengers were packing up for the mission. Skye walked with them to the hanger with promises that she’d go straight back to their room after. 

\----

It was a twenty-minute flight from New York to D.C. by Quinjet. Sharon sat next to Steve as they quietly went through their tactical plan. Arrangements had very publicly been made for the other Avengers going to other bases by Pepper. Flight plans and passenger manifests could be changed last minute and by the time any HYDRA personnel processed the paperwork, it would be too late.

Sharon saw slight signs of strain on Steve’s face. “You okay?” Sharon asked.

“I’m just a little worried about Skye. I think it’s finally sinking in how badly she was hurt and she’s feeling down about how much she’s going to be left out of things.”

“We’ll have to come up with a way to cheer her up,” Sharon suggested. “I mean, I still want to give her a really big party for her birthday since she’s never had one before, but that’s still a few months away.”

“Maybe we can go away for a weekend,” Steve suggested. “Reconnect with each other before we start living together.”

Sharon frowned. “What if Skye wants to stay on the Bus?” she asked.

Steve shook his head. “I won’t allow it, it’s not safe,” he said stubbornly. Sharon sighed. There were times that Steve’s 1930s mentality was really nice and times that it was infuriating. Steve’s need to make sure that both of his soulmates were safe was the subject of a heated discussion that was long overdue.

“She’s her own person, Steve,” Sharon said softly. “What’s more is that she’s someone who’s been hurt by a lot of people she was supposed to rely on. Dictating terms to her will just push her away.”

“She almost died,” Steve countered softly. 

“I know,” Sharon acknowledged.

“She could have… if Rumlow hadn’t texted me when he did… she almost died.” Steve said, his voice breaking with emotion. “I lost everyone I’ve ever knew in a single moment. When I woke up, I was alone, except for two marks on my body. I can’t… I can’t lose them too.”

Sharon put a hand on Steve’s shoulder. “You’re not going to as long as we have a say in the matter. But we stand with SHIELD and there’s risk involved in that.”

“If you two are done, we’re approaching headquarters,” Natasha said from the pilot’s seat. 

Steve turned on his Comm. “Everyone in place?” he asked.

“Avenger Team Three in Place,” Clint said.

“Avenger Team Two in Place,” Tony’s voice came through.

“Tech Support in Place,” Skye said.

“Home Base coordinating attacks,” Fury said on their frequency. “Set to send go order worldwide.”

“Landing in three… two… one…” Natasha said. The second the wheels touched the ground, Natasha was over the seat and had both of her pistols out. Sharon grabbed her guns, while Steve grabbed his shield. Most of the people in the hangar were SHIELD agents, but there were two who were HYDRA; they immediately panicked and tried sounding some sort of alarm. Natasha and Steve rushed forward and subdued the agents. Once they had them zip tied, the three Avengers went into the hall where they were joined by emergency teams made up of agents guaranteed to be loyal to SHIELD. Sharon took the flank as they moved down the hall. 

Skye was calling audibles to the Avenger teams as they answered her regarding movements. SHIELD-loyal teams moved around the three bases, subduing HYDRA agents and HYDRA-suspected agents and zip tying them. Sharon zip-tied her fair share of HYDRA agents and in the grand scheme of things, they didn’t resist. For one thing, they didn’t announce why certain agents were being arrested. Then Sharon spotted Jack Rollins heading toward them. He was far out, but he raised a gun, aiming it at Steve’s head.

Without thinking, Sharon raised hers. “Stop!” she shouted. Rollins took two more steps forward before Sharon fired. The bullet hit Rollins’ leg and he went down. Sharon hurried forward. “Damnit Rollins, you are not getting out of this this easily!” Sharon called, pushing down on the bullet wound that was gushing blood with each heartbeat.

“Hail… HYDRA,” Rollins ground out, startling a couple of the nearby suspected HYDRA members, though they could have been acting. 

“We’ve got this,” one of the cleared SHIELD medics said, handing over an antiseptic wipe. “Go.”

Sharon nodded and wiped her hands of blood before grabbing her gun again. Natasha and Steve had been guarding her and they resumed their sweep.

Rollins was not the only member of HYDRA who tried resisting, though only two received injuries as bad as his, many more were moderately injured. Before Sharon knew it, they were wrapping things up in the Triskellion. Based on what Fury was saying over Comms, Victoria Hand was still clearing out the Hub, and they still had a few minor bases to deal with, but the majority of HYDRA agents were arrested with proportionately few major injuries. 

When word got out that the arrested agents had been part of an attempted HYDRA uprising, friends and colleagues had stood shocked and stunned at the development. Betrayal could be seen on most of the faces of the agents who remained in the lobby, waiting for news. Maria Hill had been called to the White House to explain what was happening and the steps being taken in the future to prevent HYDRA from infiltrating SHIELD again. 

Fury had been tempted to send Steve with them to smooth any possibly ruffled feathers, but Steve refused, demanding to be in on the interrogation of Pierce. Thor had found Sunil Bakshi at The Sandbox and they learned that he’d been brainwashing SHIELD assets like Donnie Gill into serving with HYDRA. Bakshi was alive, but that was pretty much all that could be said. Apparently it was a high crime on Asgard to take away someone’s free will. Thor considered it a personal affront that Bakshi had tried to do so to his shield-brother’s bonded.`


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Avengers wrap up taking down HYDRA and Skye makes a discovery.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, many thanks to my beta, LadyWinterlight

While the Avengers and SHIELD agents started wrapping things up, Skye started scanning the information she had gotten from the HYDRA servers. JARVIS automatically brought up several files referencing Project Insight and a plan to assassinate Director Fury involving a weapon they had titled ‘The Asset’. 

Curious more than anything, Skye did a keyword search of ‘The Asset’ and found a folder that was date stamped as originating in 1945. She opened the file and saw scores of other files, and a JPG on top. She opened the JPG and gasped when she saw an image of Bucky Barnes in his military uniform. There was also an AVI file, a video, and she clicked on it. As the video started to play, she was immediately reminded of her time with Bakshi. The man in the chair was screaming. They were torturing him. She remembered the pain that she was put through as they tried to brainwash her. She remembered how much she had screamed. How much she had wished for death. Then the camera focused on the man in the chair and she felt sick. Bucky… they were torturing Bucky Barnes. Brainwashing him. His screams blended with hers in her mind. She shoved her panic and fear as far down as it would go.

Skye scanned through the other files as quickly as she could. In some files Bucky was referred to as ‘The Winter Soldier’ in others ‘Asset’ and finally she landed on the coordinates of something called ‘Asset Storage,’ which made Skye’s stomach roll. Steve had to know about this, and knew that this wasn’t something to talk about over comms.

She ran from her room towards the hanger and got into one of the spare Quinjets, starting it up. She’d be there in twenty minutes, which would mean they’d be able to get to Bucky within the hour or just a little past that. She bit her lip as she took off. They had to rescue him.

It took her fifteen minutes to get to the Triskellion. Skye admitted that she had pushed the engines a little, but this was  _ Bucky _ . Steve deserved to know as soon as possible. When Skye arrived, the entire base was in chaos. At least a third of the people in the building lined the walls in handcuffs looking angry or defeated, while others looked on in confusion and horror.

Skye ran a little lopsided due to her walking cast, the material making a swishing noise as she ran. She ignored the pain in her ankle. Thankfully, she soon spotted a familiar face. “AC! Where’s Steve?” Skye shouted, not slowing down.

“Skye?” Coulson asked, looking rather shocked. “Wha- I thought Steve said you were on bed rest.” 

“No time,” Skye panted, finally slowing down as she caught up with Coulson. “Just… need… Steve…”

“Skye, maybe you should sit-” Coulson started.

“Agent Coulson,” Skye barked. “I need to speak with Captain Rogers  _ now _ . If you don’t know where he is, tell me so I can find someone who can.”

“I’ll take you,” May said from behind Coulson. “Can you tell me what this is about?”

Skye paused for a minute, then whispered in May’s ear as quietly as she could, “Bucky’s alive.”

May’s head shot back, her eyes wide in shock. “I’m assuming this has something to do with -”

“Which is why Steve needs to know what I know as soon as possible,” Skye said. Shortly after that, she hoped that she’d pass out. Both because of the pain in her ankle and so that she could stop hearing Bucky’s screams in her mind as HYDRA wiped him over and over again.

“Follow me,” May said. She paused and grabbed a wheelchair. “Sit down before you pass out.”

“That might be a good idea,” Skye said shakily, easing herself into it.

May pushed her extremely fast, running behind the chair, both of them knowing it was tactical information that would benefit them in interrogating Pierce and it was now a race against the clock to see if they could rescue Bucky.

“Skye?” came Sharon’s shocked voice, echoing from the end of the hallway they had just turned into.

“Sharon,” Skye said, leaping out of the chair and into Sharon’s arms

“What the hell are you doing here? How? You are in so much trouble,” Sharon started.

“I have to talk to Steve,” Skye said, interrupting Sharon’s rant. Sharon felt Skye’s fear and nausea coming through the bond. “I found something that… it couldn’t wait and I couldn’t say it over comms…”

“Sharon,” Steve said, coming out of interrogation. “I thought I felt… Skye? Skye -” 

“Okay, before another person yells at me for not being on bedrest, there’s something all of you and Fury need to know before proceeding with Pierce and we probably shouldn’t be in a hallway for me to tell it.” 

Less than a minute later, they were in a room close by and Natasha was having her turn with Pierce. 

“Bucky Barnes is alive,” Skye blurted out once the door closed. Steve’s eyebrows furrowed and he opened his mouth. “Schmidt drugged him, back when he was in… that HYDRA facility, with something like your serum. After falling from the train Zola went back for him. They… they brainwashed him… like they tried to… brainwash me.” Her heart was breaking at the look that Steve was giving her, utter betrayal all over his face. She kept going. “They wanted a perfect soldier, like you were. So they named him the Winter Soldier.”

“The Winter Soldier is a myth,” Fury said, frowning. “It’s a story that’s been around…”

“For over seventy years?” Skye snarked. Fury’s eyebrows raised. 

“Where?” Steve asked. 

“In a warehouse not far from here,” Skye said, handing Steve the coordinates she had found. 

Steve took off, yelling to Thor over the Comms, clearly in no mood to ask questions. Though Thor was half a world away, the Demigod would be able to meet him there.

“I’ll go inform Pierce that we'll have a new set of charges for the international court to file,” Fury said. “Should wipe the smirk off his face for at least a little while.”

The pain of running on a shattered ankle was finally starting to sink in as Skye became very pale. The walking cast could only cushion so much and her lungs were still burning. It was a lot farther of a run from the landing pad than she had anticipated.

“Let’s get a SHIELD doctor to check you out,” Sharon said hugging her from behind and pushing her chair.

“I’m sorry,” Skye said, coughing slightly. “I was… I couldn’t tell Steve over Comms.”

Sharon nodded. “I get it,” she said softly. “Bucky meant a lot to Steve. He was more or less his brother. You’ve given Bucky the best chance he’s had in seventy years.”

Arriving at the medical wing, a nurse gave Skye, who was having coughing fits, a once over. “It’s going to be two hours,” the nurse said, giving Skye a judgemental look. “A lot of HYDRA people were injured in the scuffle.”

Skye looked around and saw most of the beds contained people in handcuffs or were strapped down. “She’s not HYDRA,” Sharon said forcefully. “She’s recovering from an upper respitory infection and risked further damage to pass on important intel to Steve Rogers and Nick Fury.”

The nurse’s demeanor instantly changed. “I have a place in the back. Follow me.”

Once Skye was settled onto a bed, a doctor came by and splinted her ankle and put her on medicated oxygen. Sharon was unwilling to leave Skye near so many HYDRA agents, so she sat next to Skye, working from a tablet despite Skye’s reassurances that she’d be okay. Skye watched as HYDRA agents were slowly cleared one-by-one by the doctors and taken away to holding. Sharon had been giving Skye a running commentary on everything going on with ‘cleaning house’ as Fury was calling it.

The UN had been called and were setting up a specialized tribunal to investigate the HYDRA agents involvements with illegal activities. A lot of the lower-level HYDRA agents were rolling over and providing as much information as they could in the hopes of cutting a deal. A good number of those agents had been under severe duress to join HYDRA - either threatened themselves or loved ones, and a good deal more were manipulated during psychological treatments for PTSD, survivor's guilt, and many other things agents typically dealt with. It would take a while to distinguish who needed treatment and who needed to be blamed. Skye was comforted to know that Pierce, Bakshi and about twenty others, including a member of the World Security Council named Malick, were taken into custody and all their assets frozen.

Steve and Thor had found Bucky, who’d been cryogenically frozen, and they were transporting him to the Tower. Steve was still in such shock that Bucky was alive that Sharon reported to Skye he hadn’t really processed what HYDRA had done to his brother.

“I heard a few rumors that you were down here,” came a familiar, gravelly voice. Skye looked up and her eyes immediately started to water at who stood in the doorway.

Sharon stiffened for moment as she both looked up and started to get between Skye and the door at the same time.

Brock Rumlow, looking dirty and cut up, put up both of his hands. “I don’t mean any harm,” he said.

Sharon instantly changed demeanor as she launched herself forward and embraced the hulking STRIKE leader. “Thank you,” Sharon whispered. “You… you saved her.” Brock stiffened, but allowed Sharon to hug him.

Skye was confused, looking between Sharon and Brock. Brock sat down next to Skye’s bed looking tired. “Do you remember me?” he asked Skye carefully.

Skye paused a moment, then took off her mask. “I remember your voice,” she said quietly. “You were there…”

Brock nodded. “Pierce had me running a package to Whitehall and I saw you geotag your position. I made sure to wipe down the laptop of physical evidence you’d been on it and texted Cap to have Stark check for the post. I’m glad you made it out of there.”

“You were… Fury’s mole?” Skye asked, putting two and two together.

Brock nodded. “After three tours in the war I got a bit turned upside-down. Fury agreed to hire me, but only if I went to therapy. The shrink was HYDRA and turned me around more and before I knew it, I was neck deep in HYDRA.”

“Why’d you… switch sides?” Skye asked, trying to keep her tone as non-judgemental as possible.

“After New York… something bad happened,” Brock said. “And HYDRA underestimated the fact that I had nothing to lose by telling Fury the truth,” Brock said. “Fury questioned me about it for hours and thought long and hard about locking me up, but eventually decided that he could use me as his mole.”

“Well, Whitehall’s still at large,” Sharon said. “But as far as I’m concerned, that’ll be tomorrow’s problem. For now, Skye and I should get back home. Steve just texted me and says he’s waiting for us to get back.”

Skye looked at her watch and noticed she had missed Lunch and Dinner without thinking about it. “Yeah, it’s been a long day for everyone and I have a feeling I’m going to be here all night,” Rumlow said. He seemed hesitant to say goodbye.

“Well come by and visit any time you want,” Sharon said. “You saved Skye’s life at the risk of your own. Consider your invitation to the Tower an open one. We owe you more than we could ever repay you.”

Brock smiled slightly. “Once they involved a civilian, I needed to step in as much as I could. You should be proud of her though, she has more stamina than most of the Ops cadets I see.”

“Yeah, we are,” Sharon said.

In spite of herself, Skye fell asleep on the plane ride back since Nat flew their Quinjet. Tony had burgers and fries ordered for all of them, so by the time they got back, the food had arrived.

Skye woke up at the first smell of food, being carried to the common room by Steve.

“Food?” Skye sleepily asked, curious.

“Bacon egg burger,” Sharon said.

Skye grinned, yawning. “My favorite.”

“I figured a little bit of a celebration was in order,” Tony said. “We did good work today.”

“Tis true,” Thor boomed. “We must feast and drink to our ancestors. We made them proud today.

The others sat silently for a moment. The weight of the day on them. “Bucky’s alive,” Steve said. “He’s downstairs in restraints. Doesn’t know who I am… doesn’t know who he is…”

“Ward’s HYDRA,” Skye said a little sullenly. “I actually liked him…”

“I thought I exchanged the Red Room for wiping red out of my ledger,” Natasha noted. “Turns out I was wrong.”

Skye sighed tiredly. “You said it,” Clint said, groaning. “I’m wiped.”

“Maybe we should put off the celebration,” Steve said tiredly. “I think some of us need to decompress.” 

“I’ve got the burgers,” Sharon said, coming from behind them. Skye felt a vague objection to the fact that she seemed to be carried everywhere these days, but since her ankle was still splinted and throbbing, she decided that it wasn’t worth verbalizing. 

“You still have some oral pain meds left over,” Sharon said as Steve put her in the middle of the bed. 

“Yeah, that sounds a good idea,” Skye groaned. “Remind me never to run on a shattered ankle again.”

“You’re not leaving that bed for at least a week,” Steve said protectively.

Skye sat up. “How are you doing?” she asked him. 

“He asked me who Bucky was,” Steve said, sounding heartbroken. 

Sharon brought over Skye’s pills with all three of their burgers and sodas on a tray. She set everything on the bed, and produced a heating pad which she wrapped around Skye’s ankle. Skye managed to eat half of her burger before the meds kicked in and she fell asleep. 

When morning came, Skye found herself unable to move. Literally. She shifted slightly, then let out a groan as her body let its protests be known. Steve appeared at her side. “Hey, Skye,” Skye turned to Steve and smiled.

“Morning,” Skye said softly. 

“We have eggs and bacon if you’re hungry,” Steve said quietly. Skye noticed that Sharon was still sleeping next to her. “Dr. Cho said you should have a few days to rest your ankle before PT resumes, so I figured a shower followed by a visit from Simmons and Fitz?”

“Simmons and Fitz?” Skye asked, curious.

“They haven’t seen you since you were kidnapped. After yesterday, they’re apparently very concerned.”

“So they’re bugging Coulson and May?” Skye asked.

“With Ward in custody, Coulson and May might be going back into the field with separate teams, and FitzSimmons would go back to the Hub. Fury’s grounded everyone until they figure things out. They haven’t heard news about you in a while. They just want to see for themselves that you’re okay.”

“Okay,” Skye said. “Breakfast?”

“Come on,” Steve said. “Let’s go into the den.”

Skye winced a little when Steve scooped her up. “You’re due for another dose of meds,” he noted.

“No kidding,” Skye said, gritting her teeth.

“Sorry, Skye,” Steve said softly. He set her gently onto the couch where two plates of eggs and bacon sat, still steaming. 

Skye kissed him softly. “I’ll be fine,” she said with a smile. “After all, I have you and Sharon. Have you gone for your run yet?”

“I’m not going today,” Steve said sullenly. “Yesterday…”

“What’d you do?” Skye said, picking up on Steve’s tone.

“Sharon and I checked your laptop,” Steve said. “We… I… needed to see Bucky’s file. Have you looked at it?”

Skye stared at Steve. “I’ve seen some of it,” she admitted. 

“Did you know that they used Bucky to assassinate Howard Stark?” Steve asked.

Skye stiffened. “What?” she asked carefully.

“He was the Winter Soldier. They sent him to assassinate a lot of people. And Howard had something that HYDRA wanted. God, how am I going to tell Tony?”

Skye sighed. “I think… maybe this afternoon we should talk to Pepper first. Then all of us can figure out how to talk to Tony about it. Bucky didn’t have a choice.” She flashed back to the pain of the brainwashing. The feeling of her entire self being slowly sucked out, while at the same time feeling anchored to the presence of Sharon and Steve in the back of her mind. It had felt like she would split in two, but her soulmates held her together like two screws in the back of her skull. Suddenly, she had an image of herself being turned into an assassin, ordered to kill Steve and Sharon without recognizing them. She felt nauseous and the smell of the eggs and bacon increased it. “I think I’m going to be sick…” she said faintly.

Steve immediately grabbed a trash can and made it back just in time. He rubbed her back while she heaved, then began sobbing when it was over.

“Shh… it’s okay. You’re safe,” Steve said, embracing her. “You’re here with me and Sharon.” 

“That could have been me,” Skye said. “A mindless assassin… or worse…” 

Sharon appeared sleepily. “What’s going on?” she asked, clearly still half out of it. Sharon blinked and her eyebrows went up as her brain registered the scene. “What happened?”

“I was just telling Skye about Howard,” Steve said, passing Skye a bottle of water and removing the plastic trash bag. 

Sharon made her way over to Skye who whimpered as she snuggled into Sharon’s arms. “I… I don’t want to kill you.”

“You’re not brainwashed, Skye,” Sharon said, trying her best to comfort her. “Don’t you think Steve and I would be able to tell?”

Skye paused and thought about it before nodding and taking a swig of water to get the bitter taste out of her mouth. Sharon regarded Skye carefully. “We’re going to get Bucky help.”

Slowly but surely, the three of them ate breakfast and showered. Dr. Cho came by and gave them the bad news. While no further damage had been done to Skye’s ankle the previous day, it seemed the clock had been reset and Skye was once again on total bed rest for the full six weeks.

After their meeting with Dr. Cho, Steve carried Skye down to the common floor and they got her settled on a couch before Coulson, May, and FitzSimmons entered the room.

“Skye!” Simmons cried the moment the elevator doors opened. She raced towards Skye and embraced her hard, causing Skye to wince. Simmons immediately withdrew. “Oh Skye… I’m so sorry. I didn’t think...”

“It’s okay,” Skye said in a slightly pained voice. 

“We’ve been so worried about you. May made it sound like you were  _ dying _ ,” Jemma noted. Skye winced. She, Sharon, and Steve had been avoiding talking about that particular elephant in the room. It was true that she’d come terrifyingly close to dying from HYDRA’s treatment of her and her exposure to the cave. “When are you coming back to the Bus?”

Skye looked at May and Coulson, then at her soulmates. “I’m not,” she admitted. “I need at least six months of rehab for my ankle and my… May wasn’t far off. Right now I look a lot better than I am, though everything is slowly improving.”

“What? But we’re a team,” Jemma said. “Except for… did they tell you about Ward?”

Skye bit her lip. “They didn’t have to. I was the one who told them. I heard was that he was arrested though.”

Fitz stepped up. “HYDRA kidnapped you, didn’t they? I’m assuming because of your skills as a hacker?”

Skye nodded. “HYDRA kidnapped me, but because they wanted to use me against my soulmates.” She had told them that she had marks, though never admitted to meeting Sharon or Steve. 

“You… you found them?” Fitz asked curiously.

Skye nodded. “HYDRA didn’t know that we had met and bonded over Christmas, so they… they thought they could break the pre-bond connection to hurt Steve.”

“Steve?” Simmons asked quickly. She looked from Steve to Skye almost comically. “Skye, are you suggesting that your soulmate is  _ Captain America _ ?”

“I prefer Steve,” Steve said with a polite smile as he extended his hand. Simmons took it, stunned.

“I wondered what happened at Christmas,” Fitz said slowly. “You seemed different when we came back.”

“Bonding does wonders to the soul,” Skye said, smiling at Steve and Sharon. “As things stand right now, I might be placed in the Comms department after I’m allowed to walk on my ankle. After a year or so, we’ll see if I become an Ops agent. Regardless, I’ll probably be stationed at the Triskellion.”

“Fury’s reconsidering the Bus’ status anyways,” Coulson admitted. “With May out of Admin, he’s reconsidering where everyone is best utilized, which right now might not be a mobile command unit.”

“Can you… did Ward say anything?” Skye asked cautiously.

May seemed to understand Skye’s question. “He admitted to passing information to his former SO, John Garrett, as well as Pierce, specifically about you. Garrett ordered Quinn to shoot you and Quinn apparently consulted Pierce and got other orders to kidnap you instead. Pierce then found out that we knew you’d been kidnapped, so he killed Quinn to throw us off.”

Skye shuddered, vaguely remembering the feeling of Quinn’s blood around her as he bled out next to her. It was so vivid that she could feel the warmth of the blood around her, the copper in the air, the echo of the gunshot… 

Sharon’s voice cut through the memory. “Skye, you’re okay. You’re safe.” Skye blinked and she was no longer on the floor but now on the couch. Coulson, May, and FitzSimmons were all staring at her looking terrified and worried. “Skye, can I tell them?”

Skye knew that Sharon was talking about what had happened to Quinn. Skye nodded a bit shakily. 

“Pierce shot Quinn in front of Skye. He’s dead,” Sharon said. “Pierce is in custody. So far he hasn’t said anything.”

“He will,” Steve said, gripping his fists tightly.

Fitz and Simmons stood speechless and uncomfortable, trying to process just the portion of what Skye had been through that they had been told. “I’m alive,” Skye said, breaking the silence. “We’re concentrating on that.”

“It’s something we’re all grateful for,” May said a little tensely. “When do you start PT?”

“The doctors want me to rest a couple of days before resuming it. I’m pretty sure Steve’s not going to let me walk for like… a week,” Skye complained.

“At least,” Steve confirmed.

Simmons and Fitz still looked skeptical. “Guys, I’m fine,” Skye said. “I’ll be happy in Comms. I’m the best hacker SHIELD’s ever seen and with HYDRA’s little coming out, I get to hack to my heart’s content. I already stole petabytes of data from their hidden servers. It’s gonna take a while for SHIELD to get through all that data. I spent the last ten years working to take down ‘the man’. I just get to do it with a slightly more evil ‘man’ than I usually take on.”

“Just as long as you stay on your training,” May said.

“With HYDRA out there, we’re going to make sure she’s trained to defend herself,” Sharon said definitively. 

They talked for about an hour until Skye started to get tired. Her team excused themselves and Steve took Skye down to their room for a nap. After she woke up, she watched a movie with Sharon while Steve was on a conference call about Bucky. Eventually, the close proximity led her and Sharon to make out. Skye wasn’t cleared for sex yet as even the easy makeout session had Skye gasping for breath.

“Ready for lunch?” Skye said when Steve came in.

“Hungry?” Steve asked with a raised eyebrow

“Starving,” Skye said. “And Sharon won’t let me out of bed.”

“I offered to bring you food,” Sharon said with a smile.

“This bed is boring,” Skye groaned.

“I don’t know if I should be offended by that statement,” Sharon lightheartedly objected.

“Come on them,” Steve said, scooping Skye up. “Time for lunch.”

“What’s the plan for this afternoon?” Skye said.

“Well I was going to go see Bucky,” Steve said. 

“I have a conference call with Fury about the future of SHIELD,” Sharon said.

“Can I come with you Steve?” Skye asked.

“I don’t want you anywhere near Bucky while he’s like this,” Steve said protectively.

“Steven,” Skye said warningly. “Stop being so damn protective.”

“This is different, Skye. Bucky’s dangerous right now. He’s unpredictable,” Steve argued

“He  _ needs  _ someone who gets it,” Skye snapped. “You were on ice for seventy years. Bucky went through… Bucky went through hell. I went five minutes of it and I changed. He’s not going to be the same Bucky any more.”

Steve looked at her. Really looked. “You’ll wear the walking cast and if I say run, you get out of there.” Skye nodded silently.

Sharon looked at Steve sharply. “Steve?” Sharon asked sharply.

“Maybe it’ll help them both,” Steve said softly. They all knew that Skye was having nightmares every night. The intensity seemed to be easing some, as she no longer woke up screaming and Steve and Sharon no longer had to remind her that she was safe and home.

Sharon stared at the pair of them, then nodded slowly. “Alright, but please be careful,” she requested.

“Now can someone feed me before I start eating Steve?” Skye complained.

“Not that I don’t see the logic in staying here, let’s get you fed,” Steve said with a grin.

Skye kissed Steve. “My hero,” she murmured.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daisy meets Bucky Barnes, and our story concludes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, many many thanks to my beta LadyWinterlight.

Skye was a little nervous to be back in Medical, but knew that it was for a good cause.

The door opened and Skye saw Bucky Barnes with much longer hair, restrained with several bands on his metal arm. Bucky wasn’t straining against his bonds though. He just sat there. “What are my orders, sir?” Bucky asked.

Steve looked sad. “There are no orders,” Steve said slowly.

Bucky looked baffled by that. Skye frowned. “Hi, I’m Skye,” Skye said.

Bucky seemed to just notice her. “Do you have orders for me?”

“I have to be able to call you something first. Do you have a name?”

Bucky thought about it. “They called me Asset,” he said. 

“Asset’s a title,” Skye said. “I want a name. Is there a name you remember? Or one you like?”

Skye and Steve both sat quietly while Bucky thought. “What about James?” Skye suggested after several quiet minutes.

“James,” Bucky said, trying the name out. “James can be my name?”

“Yeah, James can be your name,” Steve said thickly.

James nodded, “My name is James,” he said decisively. “Do I get orders now?” 

Skye imagined herself in James’ shoes. Terrified of her new ‘minders,’ terrified of the orders she was going to be given, because she’d have to follow them. It reminded her of the fear she felt as a kid. Scared of her new foster parents. Scared of what they’d do to her. Scared if it was a good home, because the shoe could drop at any time for any reason. She remembered how Miles had found her, literally picking her up out of the gutter and taking her home. He’d been different then. Idealistic. Angry at the foster system, but never angry at the people unless they’d done something wrong. She remembered the first night she’d stayed with him at sixteen when he’d given her the bed and a three-inch knife to reassure her he wouldn’t try anything. He’d given her power back. She had to do that with James.

“I order you to decide what you want for dinner,” Skye said, thinking Steve might not have the heart to do it. “Do you want an omelette or chicken noodle soup?”

James thought about the choices. It was clear he’d never been given a choice in anything in the last seventy years, but he couldn’t not follow an order. “I think I knew someone once who made chicken noodle soup,” James said faintly. “Can I have that?”

\----------

“Pepper, we need to talk to you,” Skye said softly.

The rest of their talk with James went okay, though there were several moments when Steve looked like he was about to cry, both realizing that the friend he’d known seemed gone and over what HYDRA had done to Bucky.

After letting JARVIS know what James wanted for dinner, Skye asked JARVIS to give Bucky a choice at each meal but limit it to a few options. James looked torn between crestfallen and elated at the news that he’d have to chose again at breakfast.

This led to James jumping at JARVIS’ voice and Skye introducing him to the AI. It had taken a little while to calm James down after that and by then an hour had passed and they decided it was time to go see Pepper. If they needed to get James out and get him somewhere secure, it was better to do it sooner than later, so they went to Pepper’s office.

“Privacy mode, JARVIS,” Pepper said when she saw their faces. “What’s going on?”

“We found some, uh, intel,” Steve admitted. “Something that Tony will react badly to.”

“What?” Pepper asked.

“HYDRA killed his parents,” Skye said quietly. “It looks like they made Bucky do it.”

Pepper’s face went unreadable. “Howard was pretty close to Bucky and I during the war,” Steve said. “It’d be like if Tony were brainwashed and forced to kill Rhodey. I know I need to tell Tony about this, but…”

“You need to make sure Tony doesn’t overreact,” Pepper guessed.

“It’s not that. We just don’t want him to blame the man who gets confused when we order him to choose what he wants for dinner,” Skye said, a bit harshly. “You should see him up there, it’s like he doesn’t remember how to be human.”

“Tony still… whatever he felt about his parents, he took their deaths hard,” Pepper said gently. “He might not be able to help himself.”

“Then help us make him understand,” Skye said.

“You can’t possibly understand how much it changed him. The thought that it was an assassination and not an accident… a piece of me is even angry at Bucky for his part in it.”

“Pepper,” Skye said calmly, sitting down in an office chair. “Bucky couldn’t help himself.”

“I get that. Logically I get that, but emotionally… He should have fought harder.”

Steve went pale and Skye’s eyes flashed. “You know, I’ve heard those words before. People said it to friends of mine who were assaulted, or when we couldn’t find jobs because we didn’t have any degrees. Or when we went hungry from Friday lunch to Monday breakfast because our foster parents didn’t give enough of a damn to feed us. Do you even know what it’s like to have someone pull you out of your own mind? Do you know what it’s like to be unmade?” Pepper and Steve both looked a little shocked at Skye’s outburst. Skye’s voice cracked in anguish. “That’s what HYDRA does when they want you as their mindless puppet. They suck you out until there’s nothing left. The only reason why I’m not like Bucky right now is because I was bonded to two soulmates that bolted me to my own body. I am so sick and tired of people making it seem like everyone’s problems would be magically solved if they just  _ fought _ harder.”

“I’m really sorry,” Pepper said, tearing up. “I didn’t think…” 

Skye took a couple wheezy breaths then nodded, also tearing up. “I… I’m sorry too. I didn’t mean to go off like that. You didn’t mean it like that…”

“You okay, sweetheart?” Steve asked Skye cautiously, seeming not to know what to do with himself with two suddenly crying women in the room.

Skye nodded, half-heartedly, tears streaming down her face. 

“Steve, leave us alone for a minute?” Pepper asked, coming to the other side of her desk and sitting next to Skye. Steve hesitated, then nodded. “You want to know something ridiculous?” Pepper asked once Steve had left the room. “I used to be jealous of you.”

Skye’s eyes went wide. “Me? Why?” she asked. 

“Because at the time, I was sure that Tony Stark was never going to look at me the way he looked at your username,” Pepper said. “He saw your genius right away. He wanted to use it. He wanted the world to see it. I think he always wanted you as some sort of protege or something. It wasn’t until after he was kidnapped that I realized that I wanted Tony for something far different from a Protege-Mentor relationship.”

“You know, as kids we used to think about what we’d buy if we had Tony’s billions,” Skye said.

“What did you want?” Pepper asked curiously. 

“During the bad placements it was usually food or a bodyguard,” Skye said distantly. “During the good placements it was usually clothes that fit properly or candy or toys that weren’t second hand. Toys we could keep to ourselves. When we were older sometimes one of us got daring and would wish for a second-hand iPod or brand new shoes.”

“Sharon mentioned something about a new wardrobe for you,” Pepper said.

Skye immediately backpedaled, blushing. “It was just a stupid game, is all. Mostly we did it to ease the hunger pangs when we were at homes that didn’t feed us too much or on Christmas we’d imagine something that we could pretend to have gotten so we didn’t have to go back to school and not have anything to tell people about.”

“Well the Maria Stark Foundation is good for philanthropic efforts around the world. Tony puts millions into it every year. I don’t see how a few trips to a candy store or FAO Schwartz would be stupid. The wardrobe thing is more because I was reminded that I overheard Sharon mentioning it to Steve while you were in surgical recovery and they weren’t allowed to sit with you yet. She wanted to take you to the mall and get you some things that were purchased a little more recently and didn’t look so well-cared for.” 

“You really don’t have to…” Skye said. 

“I want to. From a Stark girlfriend to a Stark protege,” Pepper said. “Besides, you’re going to be cooped up in this place for weeks. You can still have fun from the couch.”

“What, like online shopping?” Skye asked. 

Pepper laughed. “Usually I’m so busy that the owners just come to me.” Skye was too stunned to react before Pepper opened the door. “Steve?” Pepper asked. Steve popped his head in, looking curious. “Steve, I want to set up a consultation for a few personal shoppers so Skye can get some new clothes. Do you know when she’d be up for that?” 

Steve’s face lit up at the prospect. He enjoyed treating his soulmates, even if it was on Tony’s dime. “I think she should be okay to stand for a few minutes by next Saturday,” Steve said. “Sharon should be available to help her if she needs it.”

“As for Tony, we should probably go see him now,” Pepper said.

“Now?” Steve asked, alarmed.

Pepper nodded. “We can’t put off something like this,” she said.

Steve scooped Skye up. “I can drop you off at the apartment,” he offered.

“Nah, I want to be there for you.” Skye said, smiling wanly. “Besides, I can help Pepper make sure nothing gets blown out of proportion.”

Steve and Pepper walked down to Tony’s lab where he was working with AC/DC blasting the background. JARVIS automatically lowered the music to a reasonable level when Pepper entered the room.

Tony spoke before he looked up. “Pepper, what have I told you about -” He brightened when he looked up. “Skyenet! Finally. I was hoping Capsicle would bring you by sooner rather than later. That thing you did to the Russian Government’s internet so users’ tweets could reach American soil. Plus that thing you did with the CIA? How did you even do that? I can’t figure it out.”

“Tony,” Pepper said calmly. “I need you to listen to what Steve and Skye found out.”

It was only then that Tony noticed their faces. “What? What’s wrong? Who died?” 

Steve flinched. “We’ve discovered something in the HYDRA data about your parents’ deaths,” Steve said carefully.

Tony’s demeanor immediately changed. “My parents… died in a car accident…” he said slowly. Tony seemed like a small child just for that moment. 

Steve looked crushed. “No, Tony, they didn’t. HYDRA… HYDRA killed them.”

“What?” Tony asked, his voice shaking. Skye squeezed Steve’s hand reassuringly. “But… why?” 

“The file seems to indicate that there was a version of the serum in the trunk of the car. HYDRA wanted it,” Skye said, filling in for Steve when he couldn’t proceed. “They sent their Asset. And before you say anything, please listen to the rest,” Skye continued in a rush before Tony could process what she had said.

“There’s more?” Tony asked, looking rather angry.

“Bucky… James… doesn’t know who he is right now,” Skye said. “He didn’t even know he was allowed a name, let alone he had one. He keeps asking us what his orders are… Tony, the video files I found dated from 1945… they were of James screaming in pain as they sucked his mind out of his own body. I know those screams… I… I made them too.”

Pepper and Tony looked unsettled by this news while Steve’s grip on her tightened almost to the point of pain. “It… it didn’t work,” she said haltingly. “My bond… it kept me… inside, I guess. But Bucky… James… didn’t have that.”

“And I don’t think I’ll ever be grateful enough that she did,” Steve said, his voice breaking. 

“I, um… Pepper, can we go up to the penthouse?” Tony asked quietly.

“Sure, Tony,” Pepper said, nodding. “We’ll see you guys tomorrow,” Pepper said to Steve and Skye. “We’re just going to…”

“We understand,” Steve said quietly.

“If you want to talk or hack or something, I’ll be online after dinner,” Skye offered Tony. 

Tony seemed to come back to himself. “Maybe some other night, Skyenet. Not tonight,” he said. 

“Any time,” Skye said with a tight smile. Steve carried her out as Skye became lost in her own thoughts. “Our floor, JARVIS.” 

“You okay?” Steve asked her quietly.

“I need to find out what happened to them,” Skye said weakly.

“Your parents?” Steve asked, connecting the dots.

“I know with Whitehall said…” Skye said in a pained voice. “It sounds like he killed my mother… but I need to know… there will always be a piece of me that will be empty until I know my whole story. My story doesn’t start anywhere, Steve. It’s like I’m a book with the first chapter ripped out. I know that with the HYDRA take down… everyone’s super busy…”

“Hey, if it’s important to you, then of course I’ll help,” Steve said softly.

“I mean, it can wait a little. I’ve waited over twenty years, but it’s time I knew the truth. It’s like I told Coulson at the beginning of all this. The truth can’t be worse than what I’ve imagined.”

“So spies tortured to death for information made your list?” Steve asked incredulous.

“Are you kidding? That was one of the cooler ones we came up with when I was a kid,” Skye said with a fond grin.

“Yeah? What else made the list?” 

“Well, one was that Tony Stark was my father but didn’t know about me, the typical orphan pipe dream. Another was someone lost me in a bet. Another was that I was being hidden from the Chinese Triad. A different one where I was some kind of Triad princess or heiress. It got pretty inventive.”

A few weeks passed in the tower. James’ therapy went slowly, but he started to pick up bits and pieces of memories here and there. He also had an easier time making choices on his own, but he still wasn’t able to ask for anything, even though everyone told him repeatedly that he could. All of Bucky’s doctors had assured them that Bucky was making the best progress that they could expect. A deprogrammer had been brought in and was starting to remove the triggers from Bucky’s mind, courtesy of a red book that had been found in the warehouse Bucky had been found in. The book read like the manual of an appliance, which made Steve furious.

Skye’s physical therapy went well. At the six week mark, Skye’s walking cast was officially removed and the trio celebrated all night, reminding each other that they were alive and together and that was what counted. 

Tony, meanwhile, avoided Steve and James like the plague, but sort-of talked to Skye about the fact that James had been used to kill his parents. “My father would have liked you,” he said to her one afternoon.

“Yeah?” Skye asked. “Why do you say that?”

“He liked smart, driven, and mature,” Tony said bluntly. “Granted, he’d never listen to a word you said, but he would have tried to hire you. He sucked as a father, but he knew how to pick ‘em.”

Skye stopped typing and turned towards Tony. “You know, honestly, I can’t pretend to understand that. I get that things ended… complicated between you, but the photos of him with you as a kid… you could tell he was proud of you.”

“Those were just photos, Skyenet,” Tony said. “The reality was something different.”

Skye shook her head. “I think that’s bull,” she said. “I think you’re just having trouble accepting the fact that your parents were… human. Complicated.” Tony was silent, and continued working. “You know, when I was a kid, I used to come up with the worst things that could have happened to my parents to cause me to have no origin. You know what was at the top of that list?” Tony said nothing, so Skye continued. “It was that my parents just didn’t want me. That’s the worst feeling in the world. Anything beyond that just makes them human. Capable of mistakes.”

Tony was silent for a long time. “If it’s true, then they’re idiots,” he muttered. “If you’ve imagined all these scenarios, then why are you doing this?” he asked curiously. “Why look for them?”

Skye smiled sadly. “Because everyone deserves to know their history. And if my parents didn’t want me… then at least I’ll know.”

It wasn’t long afterwards that James remembered Rebecca, his younger sister, which was a huge gain according to Steve. James seemed to be gaining confidence in himself and Tony was very slowly began adjusting to the fact that HYDRA was to blame for his parents’ car accident. 

That week was also the week that Steve finally caved and allowed Skye to see Pierce. According to Coulson, Ward was also asking for Skye and refused to talk to anyone else. Skye agreed to step in to see him. So Skye found herself at the Fridge in one of the holding cells standing across from Ward.

“Skye,” Ward said, his face lighting up. “You came.”

“I only came because Coulson asked me to,” Skye said.

“That can’t be the only reason,” Ward said smoothly. “You have feelings for me, don’t you?”

Skye shuddered. “The only feeling I have for you is hatred,” Skye snapped. “Especially after what I heard you wanted them to do to me.”

“We were meant to be,” Ward said, confusion etched on his face. “Don’t you know that?”

“I have soulmates,” Skye said. “I don’t need anyone but them.”

“One meeting with one of them doesn’t mean it’ll work out, Skye,” Ward reasoned. “I wanted to give you a chance to love who you wanted to, not who Fate put you with.”

Skye shook her head. “You assumed that I hadn’t bonded with my soulmates, but I did. Over Christmas we all snuck away and spent the holiday together.” Ward looked gobsmacked. “And even if I had a choice, I’d never choose you.”

Ward’s face went furious. “You know why I did all this Skye? It’s because, for the first time in a long time, I wanted something for myself. One of these days I’m going to get out of here. Maybe then I should just take what I want.” From the hungry leer on Ward’s face and Skye’s past knowledge that Ward was a little obsessed with her, it was clear what he wanted.

Skye went white as a sheet and started backing out of the room as fast as she could, her eyes never leaving Ward until the door clicked shut. Steve was being held back by Fury and Coulson and both were struggling to keep it that way. Sharon looked like she wanted to go after Ward, but the second Skye turned around, Sharon rushed for her and Skye crumpled into sobs. Steve joined them not long after, pulling Skye into his arms and hugging her tightly. He seemed to be holding onto her for dear life. Trying to keep himself from killing the man. Sharon, however, had no such hesitation. 

“She’s not doing that again,” Steve told Coulson. Coulson nodded in understanding.

“Hey,” Skye heard Sharon say. Then they heard the crunch of bone and a grunt. “Trust me, you’re getting off easy. Steve’s on the other side of the door.” 

“I want to see Pierce,” Skye said softly.

“Skye,” Steve said, still looking like he wanted to punch someone, “are you sure? Wouldn’t you rather just go home?”

Skye shook her head. “I meant what I said. I want him to see that he can’t break me.”

Steve insisted on coming in with Skye to see Pierce’s cell. Skye had seen pictures of him from before, and the man looked far different in the prison jumpsuit he’d been given. “You didn’t break me, or Steve, or SHIELD,” Skye said to the man. 

“HYDRA will rise again,” Pierce said with a smirk. “You’ll never find Whitehall. I hear you’re looking for him.”

“He killed my mother,” Skye said.

“Of course he did,” Pierce said. “How do you think Herr Reinhardt reversed his aging?”

Skye faltered. “What?” she asked.

“Your mother had a power,” Pierce said. “She didn’t age. Reinhardt used her to unlock the fountain of youth.” Skye went a little gray in the face.

“So Daniel Whitehall is Reinhardt,” Steve said,

“And he will help HYDRA survive.”

“SHIELD survives too,” Skye snarled. “There will always be people to stand up against HYDRA. And now we know that you’re still around, we’ll beat you.” She put her hand in Steve’s. “HYDRA will always do the same thing wrong over and over.”

Skye collapsed into Steve’s arms when it was over, Fury looking speechless. “SHIELD… SHIELD saved me from HYDRA,” she managed to tell them. 

After her visit to the Fridge, Skye started feeling like something was off. She couldn’t put her finger on why, so she chalked it up to having to deal with Ward and Pierce. Skye went about her usual week, doing physical therapy, coding, visiting James, and bugging Steve and Sharon about when they were going to let her return to SHIELD. On her last several visits, James repeatedly gave her odd looks.

“What?” Skye asked him finally.

“I don’t know,” Bucky said. “Something seems different.”

After a week, Skye caved and went to Google her symptoms to figure out what might going on. After scanning past all the “it’s cancer and you’re going to die” results, she landed on a hyperlink that caused her to pause. It was a possibility, she knew, but she wanted to be sure. Texting Steve (who was on some Avengers day trip) and Sharon (who was at the Triskellion) that she was going out but was taking an ICER and her SHIELD badge with her. Steve didn’t even  _ respond  _ in his usual panic about her going outside alone until she was already back in the tower. Sharon was usually fine as long as she kept her up to date, which Skye always did as long as Sharon and Steve did.

Sharon and Steve found Skye in their room with the lights off when they returned home from SHIELD that night. Skye’d had been wearing herself out between physical therapy, helping James and Tony, and the projects that Fury was having her start on for the Comms department from the tower. They were tempted to let her sleep, but she’d also been extra hungry from all the work she was doing and they didn’t want her to skip a meal anyway.

“Skye,” Sharon asked softly. Skye groaned half-heartedly in response and covered herself with the comforter. “You feeling okay?”

“JARVIS. Lights on to half?” Steve requested. Skye sat up, blinking blearily. 

“You fall asleep after doing your physical therapy again?” Sharon asked curiously.

“No,” Skye said grumpily.

“I think you’ve been working too hard. You should take some time off this weekend,” Steve said. “Maybe we should go somewhere.” For some reason, Skye started sobbing.

“Skye? Are you okay?” Sharon asked, now concerned. “Is this about your Ops training being delayed another month?”

Skye sobered at the thought. “It’s… uh…. It’s going to get delayed longer than that,” Skye admitted softly.

“What?” Steve asked, surprised. “Why? And for how long?”

“About ten months,” Skye said.

“A year?” Steve exclaimed. “They said you couldn’t spar for a  _ year _ ?”

Sharon froze, deep in thought. “Not yet,” Skye said nervously, “but they’re going to.”

“Why in God’s name can’t you spar for a year?” Steve asked.

“Because I’m pregnant,” Skye said simply. She watched as Steve’s and Sharon’s faces changed. Sharon looked ecstatic, immediately embracing Skye. Steve, meanwhile, looked at Skye reverently.

“Pregnant?” he asked quietly. Skye smiled and nodded. She knew in that moment that she had found her happy ending. Her family. Whatever happened next, everything would be okay. Through the bond, she could feel their joy and support. She knew they were going to coddle her during her pregnancy, but some small part of her was alright with it to a degree. From what she heard, she was going to want all the foot rubs she could get.


	8. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Epilogue!

Skye felt disgustingly large. At six months pregnant with a super soldier’s baby, she looked like she was eight months. She moved slow these days, so Steve had a hard time allowing her to go anywhere without an escort of someone who could defend her and themselves. It had taken a while for Skye to adjust to Steve’s constant overprotectiveness and hypervigilance. After a few months, Skye realized that it had nothing to do with the fact that she was a woman and everything to do with the fact that she’d nearly died and now it wasn’t just her life, but their child’s as well. She often, in the first weeks since she told her soulmates about the baby, woke up to find Steve staring at her in wonderment and awe. 

It helped that she was happy in the Comms department, though she usually fell asleep the second she got home and it was an effort to rouse her for dinner. This particular day, Steve and Skye were going out in public to the White House. Steve had been invited to multiple public Christmas Parties, but had declined because he didn’t want to leave Skye out of the festivities and Skye felt uncomfortable with the idea of going to a public event - especially with Whitehall still out there. 

Given the circumstances, the President had invited them to a private dinner. It still required Skye trying to find a maternity dress that was nice enough for the White House, but at least she wouldn’t be out and pregnant in front of hundreds of people with smartphones. Pepper ended up saving the day by contacting several designers and providing her with dresses that fit the bill. The whole situation seemed pretty surreal to Skye. A little more than a year prior, she’d been homeless and friendless, and now she was going to the White House.

Dinner was lovely, especially since the President didn’t talk shop but instead asked Steve questions about what it was like to grow up during the Roaring Twenties and the Depression. 

“I have to say, I’m a little impressed that you’ve kept this a secret,” the President said, indicating Skye, whose wedding ring twinkled as she rested her left hand on her pregnant belly.

“What’s a little covert ops between soulmates,” Skye joked lightly.

“Nothing that two Agents of SHIELD can’t handle,” the President said with a smile. “Besides, it should be no trouble for you. I hear you practically brought HYDRA to its knees single-handed.”

Skye felt Steve tense next to her. “It wasn’t easy, but it needed to be done,” Skye said non-committally. “There were a lot more people than just me involved though.” In the six months since it happened, Skye had received intense therapy for what had happened to her. It had taken a while for her to trust Andrew, but she was now working through not just her kidnapping but also some of the more traumatic parts of her childhood and the fears that developed because of them.

“The world owes you more than they know,” the President acknowledged.

“Yeah, but I’m not exactly one for the spotlight,” Skye said, desperate to defuse the situation. “It’s why I started as a hacker…”

The rest of the night passed easily enough, though Skye was dead on her feet by the time they got home. “I haven’t felt that awkward since Coulson black-bagged me out of my own home,” Skye said when they arrived home, immediately taking off her shoes. “I hope you didn’t expect to ever be asked back to the White House.” 

“I never did enjoy the spotlight,” Steve said. “Come on, let’s get you two to bed.” 

Skye didn’t even check to see social media until the next morning. By then the Instagram picture of Steve and a very pregnant Skye some tourist had taken was all over the internet. There were news articles about it, and the Washington Post had tracked down her identity as Skye Rogers. Their marriage certificate confirmed that they were in a bonded relationship with one Sharon Carter, so articles everywhere were talking about Skye, Sharon, and Steve, and the pending baby.

“Come on,” Steve said, his voice like steel.

“What?” Skye asked.

“We’ve got to get you somewhere safe,” Steve said. “We’ll start with the Triskellion.”

“Steve,” Skye groaned.

“Every HYDRA agent still free is going to try to make a run at you,” Steve said. 

“Fine,” Skye conceded. “Let’s go to the Triskellion.”

“Good, I’ve got a STRIKE Team coming in,” Steve said anxiously.

“Steven Grant,” Skye said, now annoyed.

\----------

Daniel Whitehall reclined in his office chair as he read the article that accompanied the photo he was interested in. The woman who had resisted Faustus was now pregnant with Steve Rogers’ baby. With HYDRA exposed and most of their members arrested or on every Most Wanted in the world, Whitehall’s resources had become extremely limited, but if this really was the girl from the village in Hunan… if the woman who never aged had had a child… he had to know what this girl, and possibly her child, was made of. One thing was for certain, getting this girl was now at the top of his priority list.

“Something interesting in the news Daniel?” Dr. List asked.

“The woman who was able to resist Faustus and foiled Insight… she’s pregnant with Steve Roger’s child.”

That got Dr. List’s attention. “The chances that the serum transferred to the child are quite high,” he said. “We could raise it to be our new Winter Soldier.”

“I want the woman, Skye.” Daniel insisted.

“That’s fine, you can have her. Perhaps we can use the samples we extracted from Barnes to impregnate her after she gives birth. Create an army of Soldiers.”

“I believe that could be arranged once we get our hands on her,” Whitehall said.

“I’ll contact my friends in Sokovia to see if we can use their facilities.”

“Think they could loan us some muscle-heads?” Whitehall asked.

List sighed heavily. “I shall make an inquiry for you,” he said.

“Could we clone the child?” Whitehall asked.

List gained a pensive gaze. “... I need to consult with a few people,” List said. “But I believe that we could.”

\----------

“I’m sure of it,” Raina said, presenting the photograph to Cal. “This is your daughter.”

Cal Zabo stared at the image in front of him. The girl in the photo certainly looked like Jiaying. If she was… he had to give her the opportunity to become who she was meant to be. Maybe then she’d be convinced that she and her child belonged with Jiaying and him back in Lai Shi. He wondered what she would become. Probably something amazing. Even being separated from her parents for most of her life, Cal could tell that his daughter was meant for amazing things.

“What will you become?” Cal asked the photograph as he heard Raina leave the room. “My Daisy…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for the reviews! And thanks to Winter for Betaing this.


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